The Memory of the World War II in the Contemporary Art of Austria: The Political Voice of Art

Ľudmila Mešková; Eva Höhn

doi:10.18688/aa200-4-56

Authors

Ľudmila Mešková Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia Author
Eva Höhn Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18688/aa200-4-56

Keywords:

cultural turn, interpretative turn, cultural memory, contemporary Austrian art and literature, Slovak and Austrian history

Abstract

The article is devoted to the understanding of art as the medium through which society, depending on the current situation, redefines its history. In our opinion it is precisely at this point that the contribution of cultural theory to social practice lies. The social discourse of the Holocaust and the Second World War, which was reinforced in Western Europe at the end of the 20th century, will also give rise to art. A great part of this process isdue to the current Austrian literature. The voice of the art in Austria grows in power always when conservative, right-wing forces are on the rise. The art installation of Wolfgang Keller “who threw the first stone” near the wall of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna (2000) became the trigger mechanism of the famous Viennese protest of cultural figures against the coming to power of Jörg Haiders right-wing party. Earlier, in the year 1988, writer Thomas Bernhard responded with the play Heldenplatz to the affair of Austrian President Kurt Waldheim. Elfriede Jelinek, the Nobel Prize winner for literature, often criticized the Austrian right-wing party FPÖ in her work. The Holocaust debate has an extraordinary influence on the Austrian cinema as well as on the cinematography of the countries involved in the orbit of Austrian art. One of the most recent examples is Tlmočník (2018), the movie about Austria and Slovakia during the Second World War by Slovak director Martin Šulík.

Author Biographies

Ľudmila Mešková, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

Ľudmila Mešková — Doc., Ph. D., head of department. Matej Bel University, Tajovského 40, 97401 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. ludmila.meskova@umb.sk
Eva Höhn, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

Eva Höhn — Mag., Ph. D., assistant professor. Matej Bel University, Tajovského 40, 97401 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. eva.hohn@umb.sk

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