Alternative history and Christoph Ransmayr’s “Morbus Kitahara”

Foster, I

Abstract

This article considers Christoph Ransmayr's monumental 1995 novel Morbus Kithara in the context of the science fiction genre of "alternative history" or contrafactual history.
The complex questions of guitl and responsibility, remembrance of the past and all too frequent amnesia are recast in the alternative world of the novel. If the conclusions are pessimistic, then this is because the Austrian experience since 1945 suggests that coming to terms with the past is not easy and that prejudice may all too easily persist.

Citation

Foster, I. (1999). Alternative history and Christoph Ransmayr’s “Morbus Kitahara”. Modern Austrian literature, 32(1), 111-125

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 1999
• Deposit Date: Oct 28, 2011
• Journal: Modern Austrian Literature
• Print ISSN: 0026-7503
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 111-125
• Publisher URL: http://www.malca.org/mal/malindex.html