ABSTRACT
Contemporary Austrian literature—unlike literature produced in French- or English-speaking countries—is not a rich source of inquiries into intercultural displacements; intracultural tensions and balancing acts are far more common, and these usually happen among what Anton Pelinka has sarcastically described as "echte unci weniger echte Osterreicher. The fabric of Austrian society is rather homogenous; any deviations from a conceptually firm norm are perceived to be potentially dangerous, and any developments that might transform the existing structure and bring difference and color into the monochrome pattern are met with massive resistance. Peter Henisch created Schwarzer Peter, an autobiographically inspired Entwicklungsroman of the Austrian Mischling Peter Jarosch—born in Vienna after the war, who chooses New Orleans for his exile when he cannot endure marginalization and failure in Austria any more. The fictional life story of Peter Jarosch is replete with Western stereotypes that associate "black" with ugly and bad, and "white" with good and beautiful.
