SINCE THE SO-CALLED WALDHEIM AFFAIR in 1986, a number of Jewish writers have gained prominence in the Austrian public sphere. Apart from contributing in a significant way to contemporary Austrian literature, many of them have also played a central role in shaping political culture in Austria over the past quarter century. One of the most prominent figures among them is Robert Menasse. Menasse was born in 1954 to a Jewish father who survived the Nazi period in Great Britain, and Jewish refugees play an important role in his early work. His 2001 novel Die Vertreibung aus der Hölle calls the reader to witness the principal character as he discovers his Jewishness and develops a Jewish identity. In this essay, I will discuss Menasse's novel as an example of both the new Jewish literary discourse in Austria in response to Waldheim and of Menasse's own development as a Jewish author.

Die Vertreibung aus der Hölle, set in the late 1990s, opens with a school reunion in a Viennese restaurant. The first impression the reader gets of Viktor Abravanel is more that of an antagonist than of a protagonist: instead of informing the party about his own career since leaving school, he discloses the hidden past of the class's teachers by accusing them of having been members of the NSDAP. He justifies his action by arguing: