(De)Construction of National and Ethnic Stereotypes in the Novel Patriots by Eva Rossmann
Katarína Zechelová
IN: Stredoeurópske pohľady, Vol. II., Issue 1, 2020, pp. 32-38, ISSN 2644-6367 (print), ISSN-2644-6472 (online)
DOI: 10.17846/CEV.2020.02.1.32-38
Abstract:
Eva Rossmann, contemporary Austrian writer and journalist, encompasses a variety of current global issues and themes in her novels including climate crisis, nationalism, populism, immigration, data collection via social networks etc. The current essay analyses the different forms of featuring national, racial and ethnical stereotypes in the novel entitled Patriots (2017), which she identifies as prejudices and preconceptions present in the thinking of individuals. In the novel, these, mostly negative “images” (Dyserinck), are deliberately constructed and spread by the social networks with the aim to create sharp boundaries between “we-group” and “the Other” (Fischer). The current essay investigates the poetical techniques, through which the author gradually deconstructs the negative stereotypes and images in question.
