Incentives - New Literature from Austria

readme.cc provides multilingual access to the latest Austrian literature. In collaboration with the Literaturhaus in Vienna the reading forum offers the latest insights about literature published in Austria.

Literary journalists and researchers introduce current new publications; reading samples allow for a closer look at the texts; short portraits of the authors complement the picture.

The range of information is currently available in five languages: German, English, French, Czech and Hungarian.

The Project "Incentives" targets at the internationalization of Austrian literature, respectively the translation of current texts.

Project realization: the Office of Documentation of Contemporary Austrian Literature (reviews, author’s portraits) – The Association of Translators (translations) – readme.cc (infrastructure).

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[ كتاب مقترح من Emily Bullock ] This collection of diary entries were all submitted to the Mass Observation archive in the UK. I had never heard of the MO until I picked up this book. I suppose it was a sort of Big Brother of its day for the pen-and-ink generation. Ordinary people were asked to submit their diary entries, their thoughts and experiences to the archive. The book runs from the days preceding the declaration of war to the midst of the Blitz in October 1940. The names of course have been changed as the MO prides itself on its anonymity. But through this book, I feel I came to know these people; their gripes about black out curtains, their concern for friends and colleagues in Germany, everyday musings. The entries contain voices from across a wide range of classes and professions: a social worker, a paper salesman, a housewife, and a young writer.

Each of the voices and their experiences is distinct, and from the initial optimism and confidence I saw their growing fears. I experienced with these people the loss of their old lives, even the loss of a child. But still they never gave up, because, well, after all this was real life and what choice did they have? Only it was more than that, there seemed to be a really passionate desire to carry on, to make the best of it all –a true example of a higher cause. This book made me feel humble; as the subtitle said, these were people living through extraordinary times. It was a powerful read all the more so because these were ordinary people, someone you might pass by on the street.

[ معلومات ] Garfield, Simon: We Are At War. The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times. (original language: English) Random House, London, 2007 (2005). ISBN: 9780091903879.