Austrian memory to be discarded, deformed and deposited: An analysis of Eva Menasse's Dunkelblum

Abstract

From the perspective of memory studies, this paper analyzes the unique Austrian mechanisms and mentalities regarding its Nazi memory across generations, as reflected in Eva Menasse's Dunkelblum (2021). This novel is another of Menasse's critical observations of Austria's collective silence and distinctive processes of discarding, deforming, and depositing its Nazi history and memory. Exceeding the scope of family history and memory, Dunkelblum portrays how a fictive Austrian city on the country's border with Hungary functions as a witness and participant of the Nazi Holocaust and a potential recorder of the memory. The novel also discloses and analyzes Austria's complex and controversial phases of denial, evasion, and subsequent acknowledgment of its deeds in the Nazi Holocaust. Different from the war generation, a new generation retrieves, preserves, and transmits the local memory through diverse mnemonic techniques and thus explores the collaboration, silence, and agony of its hometown and its nation during the Nazi regime.