Beyond the Siege: Cultural Traffic between Austrians and Turks, 1878 to the Present

FAIN: FT-58769-11

Maureen Healy
Lewis and Clark College (Portland, OR 97219-8091)

"Beyond The Siege" seeks to rewrite the modern history of relations between Austrians and Turks. Until now, this history has been shaped by recycled narratives of the 1683 siege of Vienna when Hapsburg forces defeated the Ottomans. Without a social history of daily exchanges to counter it, a "siege template" has developed in which monolithic Turks and timeless Islam are foes against which Austria asserts its historical place in protecting Europe and "the West." This template has been easily mobilized in past and current political discourse. This study instead focuses on cultural traffic between Austrians and Turks. Using the theory and method of everyday life history, it upends the siege template to tell a more nuanced history of encounter, exchange and entanglement.