Heimatlosigkeit in den Erzählungen von Ingeborg Bachmann / Loss of Homeland in Ingeborg Bachmann’s Short Stories

Abstract

Ingeborg Bachmann’s works deal with the topic of losing homeland through the metaphor of the house of Austria, which the author presents as the true homeland or rather the dream homeland of her protagonists. Her idea of the House of Austria is linked to the Habsburg Empire and developed partly as a result of its fall and partly as a result of a lack of identification with post-war Austria. In the novels Malina and Der Fall Franza, for example, we see a longing for the former connection between Austria and Hungary as the answer to the discontent with the post-war country. Similar wishful thinking can be found in Bachmann’s short stories and poetry, which is the reason to examine why Bachmann’s characters feel at loss regarding their homeland and mother tongue in two short stories from Simultaneous.