Kakanien im Exil
Kakania in Exile

Summary/Abstract: In 1943, a striking anthology entitled Heart of Europe was published in New York. It was edited by two prominent German writers, the son of Thomas Mann (Nobel Prize for Literature 1929). Klaus Mann and Hermann Kesten from Galicia. Both had emigrated from National Socialist Germany to the United States. The extensive collection of texts they presented in English translations introduced European writers of the interwar period to an American audience. British authors and drama texts were excluded. Country descriptions introduced the chapters and bio-bibliographical information concluded the volume. The essay examines not only the selection criteria, but above all the assignment of authors to 'countries', which - now in the middle of the Second World War - took place according to the situation of the political post-war treaties of 1919/20. Problematic decisions were above all the assignments in the successor states of the Habsburg monarchy (Robert Musil: ‚Kakanien‘), which are discussed using examples. The resonance of American literary criticism is also taken into account.

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