This paper presents an overview of the central arguments of some studies and essays about Austrian literature (Menasse; Schmidt-Dengler; Sebald, Weiss, Zeyringer) that are concerned with the existence of a difference between the Austrian and other German language literatures. To illuminate the core points of these discussions, we will compare them to representative arguments about Austrian literature from post-war decades. The aim is to show that contemporary German literature studies in Austria do not dedicate themselves any more to the construction of an "Austrian myth" or to the search of an alleged "essence" of national literature. On the contrary, the construction of an "Austrian myth" has been replaced by analyses of this myth as well as the social and historical contexts that surround the literary production of the country. In spite of the argumentative discrepancies between the different approaches - which are closely aligned with the formation of the Austrian nation -, the continuing insistence on the part of contemporary German literature studies in Austria on the distinctiveness of Austrian literature is interesting to observe.
Austrian literature; Austrian identity; history of literature