Literatur Und Kritik - Profile

Profile

Compared to its predecessor, Literatur und Kritik printed more texts written by young authors and much more literature from Central and East European countries.

A study by the German scholar Renate Langer argued that the magazine was conceived originally as an official literary magazine of the Austrian state and thus received public subsidies from the first day on. Until the end of the 1980s, the magazine was dogged by this reputation.

Since its founding, Literatur und Kritik has been edited by the Salzburg publishing house Otto Müller Verlag, for several years now as five double issue per year. Scholar Klaus Zeyringer names it as one of the most interesting and richest literary magazines in German speaking countries. As of 2010 the print run of Literatur und Kritik was around 4,000.

Editors in chief were first Jeannie Ebner and eventually Kurt Klinger. In 1991, Karl-Markus Gauß became the new editor, together with publisher Arno Kleibel, and designed new characteristics for the magazine. For example, he introduced the new category Cultural Letters with essays and feuilletons covering cultural and historico-cultural topics. He gave more weight to discussion of the literatures of Central Europe and international literature. Additionally he managed to interest a younger generation of writers in collaborating.

The 40 Year Anniversary issue gives insight into texts published during the first twenty-five years of the magazine, e.g. by Ilse Aichinger, Ingeborg Bachmann, Italo Calvino, Elias Canetti, Paul Celan, Erich Fried, Alfred Gesswein, Peter Henisch, Friederike Mayröcker, Robert Menasse, Peter Rosei, Peter Turrini, and Czesław Miłosz.