Austria and the Alps: Landscape, Culture and National Identity

For Volume 18 of Austrian Studies (2010) we invite proposals for articles on the multi-faceted cultural responses to the Austrian Alps, on their historical and cultural (re)constructions, and on the complex discourses of identity, aesthetics, nature, and nationhood in which the mountains continue to play a role. Interdisciplinary contributions are very welcome, as are papers focused on specific historical periods. Proposals relating to any of the following thematic areas would be particularly welcome:

Cultural responses to and representations of the Austrian Alps in, for example, prose fiction, poetry, autobiography, visual arts, film

The mountain as topos, symobol and motif in Austrian culture and society

Romantic conceptions of nature and of ‘space’

The Alpine between tradition and modernity

Conceptions of ‘Heimat’ and the Austrian Alps

The Alps and ‘Austrianness’

Urban versus regional culture(s) and identities; Vienna and the Alps

The Alps as borderland; transnational Alpine identities

The Alps as site for tourism, sport and leisure

The Alps in the context of discourses of health and the ‘natural’

Winter sports and national identity

The Alps and youth culture

Gender identities and the Alps

Alpinism and heroic configurations of the mountaineer

Claiming the Alps: Alpine Exploration and Imperialism; the history of the Alpenvereine

Rationalist agendas and the Austrian Alps

Mountains, kitsch and popular culture

Science and the Alps

Proposals should be sent to Dr Jon Hughes (jon.hughes@rhul.ac.uk) by 1 May 2009. It is anticipated that the deadline for completed articles will be January 2010.