Associate Professor of German Edith Toegel participated in an international conference, "The New Europe at the Crossroads" at York St. John University, England in July. Her paper, "'Heimat' Redefined: Women and Multiculturalism in Barbara Frischmuth's novels," discussed the writer's concern for racial tensions in her homeland, Austria, in particular with regard to the large number of Turkish immigrants since 1989.
In her most recent novels, Die Schrift des Freundes (1998), Die Entschluesselung (2001), and Der Sommer, in dem Anna verschwunden war (2004 ) Frischmuth calls attention to the necessity of a meanigful political and democratic discourse ("not well developed in Austria" BF) by portraying traditional Austrian women in social situations both foreign and threatening to them. Frischmuth's novels point out the problems of a post-1989 euro-centric, Catholic Austria, which, Toegel concludes, necessitates the reevaluation of the traditional concept of "Heimat".
In her most recent novels, Die Schrift des Freundes (1998), Die Entschluesselung (2001), and Der Sommer, in dem Anna verschwunden war (2004 ) Frischmuth calls attention to the necessity of a meanigful political and democratic discourse ("not well developed in Austria" BF) by portraying traditional Austrian women in social situations both foreign and threatening to them. Frischmuth's novels point out the problems of a post-1989 euro-centric, Catholic Austria, which, Toegel concludes, necessitates the reevaluation of the traditional concept of "Heimat".
