Abstracts
Sixth Annual Conference on Austrian Literature and Culture
"Visions and Visionaries in Literature and Film of Modern Austria"
October 2001

Linda DeMeritt, Alleghenny College
"On of Gert Jonke's first novel Geometrischer Heimatroman"

Upon publication in 1969 of Gert Jonke's first novel, Geometrischer Heimatroman, the young author was hailed as the creator of a modern regional novel and a significant contributor to the literary avant-garde. Already in the title the author thematizes the tension of the novel between his theme and his method. The theme – a Heimatroman – evokes notions of security and belonging, of rootedness in the soil, and participation in the shared values of the rural community. It also has less comfortable connotations as a tool of Nazi propaganda, and it is this connection that Jonke brings out through a literary form he calls geometric. My paper will discuss Jonke as a "visionary" in the sense that with this novel he anticipates later authors who use literary experimentation to attack Austrian provincialism and everyday fascism both past and present.

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