sissi's world offers a transdisciplinary approach to the study of the habsburg empress elisabeth of austria. it investigates the myths, legends, and representations across literature, art, film, and other media of one of the most popular, revered, and misunderstood female figures in european cultural history.

sissi's world explores the cultural foundations for the endurance of the sissi legends and the continuing fascination with the beautiful empress: a bavarian duchess born in 1837, the longest-serving austrian empress, and the queen of hungary who died in 1898 at the hands of a crazed anarchist.

despite the continuing fascination with "the beloved sissi," the habsburg empress, her impact, and legacy have received scant attention from scholars. this collection will go beyond the popular biographical accounts, recountings of her mythic beauty, and scattered studies of her well-known eccentricities to offer transdisciplinary cultural perspectives across art, film, fashion, history, literature, and media.

in his prose fiction, memoirs, poetry, and drama, thomas bernhard (1931-1989)-one of the twentieth century's most uniquely gifted writers-created a new and radical style, seemingly out of thin air. his books never "tell a story" in the received sense. instead, he rages on the page, he rants and spews vitriol about the moral failures of his homeland, austria, in the long amnesiac aftermath of the second world war.

yet this furious prose, seemingly shapeless but composed with unparalleled musicality, and taxing by conventional standards, has been powerfully echoed in many writers since bernhard's death in 1989. these explorers have found in bernhard's singular accomplishment new paths for the expression of life and truth.

thomas bernhard's afterlives examines the international mobilization of bernhard's style. writers in italian, german, spanish, hungarian, english, and french have succeeded in making bernhard's austrian vision an international vision. this book tells that story.