„I never had the intention to write any autobiographical works“: exile and autobiography in the transnational life of Paul Hatvani-Hirsch

Abstract

Abstract: Located at the intersection between knowledge transfer studies and biography, this article analyses the career of the expressionist writer Paul Hatvani-Hirsch, who fled Vienna in 1939. It argues that his transnational living and working experiences and the long-lasting process of acquiring, translating, and adapting knowledge into new contexts caused by multiple migrations in his life crucially influenced not only his career as a writer, but also his autobiographical self-understanding. It shows that Hirsch’s biographical and autobiographical work responded in many ways to the challenges and opportunities of his migration experiences. In particular, the author argues that particularly his later autobiographical writings allowed him to account for the traumatic experiences caused by his forced migration.