"In this book Matthias Konzett examines three writers, Peter Handke, Elfriede Jelinek, and the late Thomas Bernhard, who have dominated the Austrian - and to some extent even the German - literary scene during the past three decades. All three have written numerous successful novels and plays, and rank presently among the most performed and discussed authors on the German stage. Handke, Bernhard, and Jelinek are rarely seen as fully politically motivated authors, perhaps because their sophisticated aesthetics has invited discussions of form and has resulted in critical neglect of their complex stances on such public issues as nationhood, critical memory, and cultural identity, issues that are of great importance in their works. But although all three writes welcome the democratic reforms of the postwar period, they also view Austria's regained national identity since 1945 with unease, questioning particularly Austria's mono-ethnic and naively accepted national heritage, which allows for the unproblematic maintenance of tradition and an apologetic attitude towards the past. Konzett focuses on the new literary strategies with which the three authors attempt to instill in their readers a critical self-awareness of national and cultural identity."--BOOK JACKET.