THE DEVELOPMENT AND ROLE OF THE FAMILY SAGA IN CONTEMPORARY AUSTRIAN LITERATURE

The family novel is a genre with a long tradition in almost all national literatures. Likewise, since the turn of the millennium many novels appeared in Austrian literature which deal with the destinies of several family generations during the 20th century against the background of global and domestic breaks marking Austrian history and society. These novels topically belong to the family saga which is one of the sub-genres of the family novel. Since literary theory still lacks a precise definition of the term family saga, in this essay various aspects and theories are presented which could contribute to defining the genre, while similarities and differences in comparison to the family novel are also being considered. The analyzed Austrian familiy sagas have been published since 2000 and they all describe at least three family generations shown from the perspective of a narrator who belongs to the third generation of the family. The grandchildren as researchers and narrators collect the testimonies and memories of older family members while then using them to put together the family history and connect it with the national history. The analysis of recent Austrian family sagas reveals several motives the narrators use as incentives for their research into and description of family history and which are not limited only to Austrian literature, but may also be applied to other national literatures, including Croatian.