Phantom Empires: The Novels of Alexander Lernet-Holenia and the Question of Postimperial Austrian Identity (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture and Thought) - Hardcover

A re-evaluation of the work of the former Austro-Hungarian officer and nobleman obsessed with post-Imperial Austrian national identity, Central European regionalism, and monarchism. Uses a sociopolitical approach to analyze 10 novels and one novella, showing how his critical sympathy for the Old Order in his early novels evolves into a subversive treatment of Austrofascism and the Third Reich, while his later work mocks the Second Republic's ambivalence toward the past. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Robert Dassanowsky is the Head of German and Austrian Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.