Am Rand der Ränder von Karl-Markus Gauß’ Schreiben: Italien
At the Edges of Karl-Markus Gauß’ Border-Writing: Italy

Summary/Abstract: While reading Karl-Markus Gauß’ literary works one learns to see Europe in a different light. His depiction of the continent draws a different cartography of it, where border-territories, border-knowledge and the peripherical become central, and vice-versa. Among Gauß’ preferred peripheries a specific area stands out as the centre of his narrative: Southeast Europe. Central Europe instead, otherwise conventionally considered as the continent’s geographical, political, cultural and power core, occurs only as a contra point to this. There is a country, however, which, although is not a part of Gauß’ narrated Southeast, frequently appears in his works: Italy. By looking at its different representations in selected writings of the author, this article aims to investigate why and how Italy emerges on Gauß’ otherwise southeast-centred personal map. While on the one hand, for example, the author problematizes rather concealed episodes of Italy’s fascist past or criticizes the regionalism of the Lega Nord, on the other hand, he casts light on unknown border-crossing facts of Italy’s history, culture and geography by narrating mostly unknown Italian intellectuals, places and minorities. In this way, Gauß’ depiction of Italy presents an ambiguous, complex, transboundary, and eventually unexpected, unknown country. It may be exactly because of these aspects that Italy takes a favoured place at the edges of Gauß’ border-writing.

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