Vienna’s Dreams of Europe is a critique of familiar teleological readings of modern history, an attempt to provide a more nuanced understanding of regional public institutions and public spaces in Central Europe, and an exploration of distinctively Austrian approaches to the idea of Europe. Arens brings to cultural studies—and to German studies in particular—a complex picture of European history and ... Read moreculture, which challenges common assumptions about modern Europe since the eighteenth century, especially “the fiction of an emerging ‘German’ culture-nation."
David Luft, Professor of History, Oregon State University, USA
Through a series of expansive case studies—ranging from Sonnenfels to Stifter to Schnitzler, from Hanswurst to Hofmannsthal to Handke, and including many points along the way—Katherine Arens innovatively explores the interconnected public spaces of Austrian culture extending well beyond the borders of the nation-state. This illuminating and elegantly written book reshapes our understanding of the ongoing public project of enlightenment and provides a rewarding road map for postnational cultural studies.
Craig Decker, Professor of German and Chair, Department of German and Russian Studies, Bates College, USA
[A] learned and thoughtful study of Austria’s place in European culture and history ... Vienna’s Dreams of Europe not only offers a rethinking of Austria’s place in Europe; it also offers a rethinking of Austria’s place within (North American) German studies. ... [It] insists on a conception of Austrian culture that is multiple and fluid. Indeed, her book is titled not “Austria’s Dreams of Europe,” but rather “Vienna’s Dreams of Europe.” Vienna here is not simply a city defined by civic boundaries, but rather a multiethnic and multilingual space defined by layers of historical ties and multiple public spaces.
Austrian Studies Newsmagazine
An interesting volume that demands readers’ attention … This study adds to the still-growing number of works representative of a resurgence in scholarly attention to Habsburg and Austrian literature, culture, and history that recognize their ongoing prominence and importance to Central Europe and Europe as a whole.
Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature
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