Thematization of children’s books as irony with a deeper meaning – With a particular focus on Arno Geiger’s Es geht uns gut [We Are Doing Fine] and Barbara Frischmuth’s Verschüttete Milch [Spilt Milk]

Abstract

In the interplay between mainstream literature and children’s literature, a conspicuous phenomenon has been observed in Austria for some time now, which in its diverse presence can probably be described as specifically Austrian. It has virtually become a topos to not only whimsically embellish novels of general literature with associations from children’s literature, but to actually structure them along the lines of these associations. Obviously, this phenomenon involves a collective compensation, in which the longstanding strict separation of the two bodies of literature is addressed in a playful but also challenging way. Two examples, novels by Arno Geiger and Barbara Frischmuth, will be discussed here.