Description: This is the first comprehensive study of the Austrian author, Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer (b. 1936). It is at once a broad introduction as well as a metahistorical analysis of her major prose works. Using some of the ideas in Hayden White's Metahistory as a springboard, individual chapters discuss Kerschbaumer's inclusion of history in each of her fictional works. Kerschbaumer's oeuvre is integral to studies in contemporary Austrian literature and German literature by women writers.
Review Quotes: «Dr. Kirby's organizing framework is elegant, sophisticated, and convincing: he uses the category of Hayden White's Metahistory to examine the different ways in which Kerschbaumer addresses the question of women's role in Austrian history. Intriguingly, Dr. Kirby sees Kerschbaumer's treatment of women as metonymic rather than synecdochic: they do not stand for all women, but rather represent women without attention to whom history is incomplete. As well as being an illuminating study of Kerschbaumer, this book is very beautifully, even literarily written - a true pleasure to read.» (Sara Lennox, University of Massachussetts-Amherst)
«Written with extraordinary literary sensibility, this study combines the author's extensive knowledge of contemporary history, literary theory, and German and Austrian women writers with a deep understanding of Austria's most important female author. An admirable introduction to a diverse and most interesting body of work.» (Sigrid Bauschinger, University of Massachusetts-Amherst)