Abstract

This project takes an in-depth look at the Carinthian Slovenes—an ethnic Slovenian-speaking minority of Austria’s southernmost state of Carinthia (Kärnten). Because this group speaks Slovenian as its mother tongue, the Carinthian Slovenes have and continue to struggle with their identity and are often met by serious discrimination.  This project investigates the memory of Carinthian Slovenes during World War Two and the years preceding it.  Many Carinthian Slovenes were deported to various concentration camps throughout the third Reich simply because of the language they spoke.  Because they were often met by strong discrimination and oppression, the Carinthian Slovenian culture is one that is often forgotten.  Maja Haderlap’s Engel des Vergessens (Angel of Forgetting) and Peter Handke’s Immer noch Sturm (It’s Still Storming) not only serve to demonstrate the importance of memory in Carinthian Slovenian literature but also broaden the Austrian literary canon.  Both works reconstruct the Carinthian Slovene deportation of 1942 by using stories from parents and grandparents along with their own imagination to remember a difficult past. My project also discusses current scholarship on Austrian memory along with autobiographical accounts in order to come to a better understanding of deportation, identity and memory in southern Austria.