Central European Literary Reconceptualization of Historical Memory: The Case of Ingeborg Bachmann’s Novels
Central European Literary Reconceptualization of Historical Memory: The Case of Ingeborg Bachmann’s Novels

Summary/Abstract: The case of Central European memory and nostalgia is a key to the understanding of spiritual and artistic life in the 20th century. Special features of Central European spiritual life and narration are the feelings of nostalgia, innumerable flashbacks in time, cosmopolitism, and strong regional identity at the same time. Central Europe is the space of distinctive and specific tolerance. The figure of Ingeborg Bachmann is symbolic since it embodies the connection between the two fundamental cultural processes of the twentieth century: philosophy and literature. The article examines Ingeborg Bachmann’s literary interpretations of Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language and responses to this philosophical and geopolitical challenge. Borders of Habsburg Empire are symbols of cross-border identities and culture. The author offers to look at the Central European literary nostalgia as a possibility to situate Central European culture and spirituality geographically and territorially. Ingeborg Bachmann created her own borders: the linguistic border, border of gender, time, territory, and philosophical thinking.

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