Umstrittene Stadt: Das Wienbild Veza Canettis

Vienna is the location for most of Veza Canetti's stories and plays but, just as in the Viennese works of her husband Elias Canetti, it is rarely if at all mentioned by name, a literary technique which underscores the city's intimidating presence. City landmarks restrict the behaviour of her working-class characters who feel themselves excluded. They have often moved to Vienna from elsewhere and are not properly accepted. Motifs of arrival and departure occur so frequently in her writing. Even the violent behaviour of Herr Iger in Der Oger can be explained by his insecure status. After the Workers’ Uprising of February 1934 Vienna becomes a tabu subject. Only in exile after 1938 does she once again address the city of her birth which has now become enemy territory. *