Abstract (eng)
Criticism of empires, the emergence of oppositional movements, and the rise of nationalism caused shifts in thinking about collective identity in 19th century Europe, which were significantly supported by literature and journalism. The nowadays barely read texts written by the Austrian author Anton Alexander Graf von Auersperg (1806-1876) address these discourses and thereby enable readers to approach them via literature. To make use of this potential, this thesis investigates the representation of collective identity and memory in the historical epic Der letzte Ritter (1829) as well as the mock epic Nibelungen im Frack (1843). Main interests are the depiction of political entities, human collectives, and the conception of history those are accompanied by. As the analysis shows, both texts elaborate on the same questions concerning an ideal system of government, successful imperial rule, community, and the importance of the past for the present. The epics testify their period’s distinct historical awareness as well as its manifold concepts of identity and hence provide access to the various layers of collective identity and memory discourses in early 19th century Austria.