To Where Joseph Roth Came From, or Travels Based on a Historical-Literary Archive

Abstract

The article discusses contemporary travels to Galicia in German-language literature from 1989 to 2016 and presents its thematic and focal development. After an excursus into the meaning and history of travel texts to Galicia, which were crucial in constituting the province, the article, through drawing on the relation between mnemonics theory and archives, attempts to demonstrate how travels to historical spaces function. The following analysis is carried out on the basis of texts that draw on the historical-literary archive, which is one of three archival types the author developed in her research.