Performing Family Identity, Memory and Hybridity in the Works of Eva Menasse

Abstract

This essay examines family identity, memory and hybridity in Eva Menasse's novels Vienna (2005) and Quasikristalle (2013). The question of identityan individual's age, ethnic background, gender, nationality, qualities, beliefs and values-presents as the key issue in all Menasse's literary works, including the short stories in Lässliche Todsünden (2009) and most recently, the essay collection Lieber aufgeregt als abgeklärt (2016). Another recurring theme is the memory of the Shoah, its effects on families and relationships between Jews and non-Jews, which always seems to linger in the background. Thirdly, the author often focuses on differences between Austrians and Germans, as well as the way each treats their Jewish minorities. Finally, hybridity, i.e. the existence between two or more poles, as well as shedding light on a character's story and a character's circumstances through other characters' perspectives are central to Menasse's approach to writing: Thus, the author examines the hybrid nature of (1) (Jewish) family identity; (2) Jewishness in general; (3) after-effects of Nazi policies on postwar (family) life in Austria-the 'Alltagsfaschismus'-and Germany; (4) differences between Germany and Austria and encounters between Austrians and Germans; and (5) gender, i.e. the way female family members are often overlooked in family narratives, as well as conditions of woman/motherhood in the 20 th and 21 st centuries.

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

“…Eva Menasse, who was born in Vienna in 1970, may be regarded as one of the representative Austrian novelists who consistently endeavor to study and remember Austria's Nazi history through “the genre of the family novel to show the effects World War II has had on their protagonists' lives” (Hamidouche, 2011, 187). By portraying a long and twisted story of three generations of a Viennese family, her debut novel, Vienna (2005), deals with how Austria's post‐war stances affect family memory and identity (Gruber, 2017). Menasse's concern with typical Austrian mentalities and methods in relation to its history and memory, which she summarizes sarcastically in Vienna as “‘Skandal’ und ‘nur in Österreich möglich’” (Menasse, 2005, 308), has not diminished but continued with intensity in her novel Dunkelblum (2021).…”