engleski

The Didactic Potential of Robert Seethaler’s “The Tobacconist” in Reviving Vienna's Places of Memory

The Didactic Potential of Robert Seethaler’s The Tobacconist in Reviving Vienna’s Places of Memory This paper focuses on Robert Seethaler’s novel The Tobacconist (Der Trafikant) and its representation of Vienna’s physical features, the characters’ behaviour in the urban city space, but also the influence of politics and society on changes in the urban space. By decoding values, emotions and identity features inscribed in the space of Vienna, we attempt to examine the relationship between places and people, as well as show the impact of literature on learning about the cultural heritage and identity of the city, but also preserving it. The paper focuses on the urban life of the Viennese in the 1930s, cultural spaces and relevant historical figures that appear in the novel, as well as the representation of Vienna under the influence of Nazism, especially the power of the media and propaganda, with the emphasis on attitudes towards Jews before the start of the Second World War. The paper starts from the hypothesis that the novel The Tobacconist has significant didactic potential due to its depiction of the social conditions of the time, changes of the society under the influence of Nazism, but also its depiction of the citizens’ behaviour and their connection with the city. As Peng et al. (2020) notes, the people acquire the understanding of a certain place thanks to «direct or indirect contact with the place» (11), and under indirect contact the literature can be included. Thus, a certain identity is added to a space not only based on the objective physical characteristics of that space, but also thanks to a set of «meanings, memories, and information from others, from the past and the future». (ibid.) All of this enables readers to create a mental image of the city of Vienna and, in a way, immerse themselves in the characters’ experiences, which can contribute to their understanding of past historical events and enable them to learn and apply their knowledge both in the present and future. Therefore, it can be said that the novel offers fundamental knowledge about the Viennese culture and historical events, as well as provides insights into the identity of the city and its inhabitants.

The Tobacconist, Vienna, society, history

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