The Vernacular: Stigma and Obstacle to the Reception of the Viennese Popular Theatre

Abstract

The Viennese Popular Theatre enjoys a widespread recognition in its native Austria (especially the works of Johann Nestroy and Ferdinand Raimund), thus contrasting with a far less favorable appreciation in the neighboring Germany. This is especially true when one compares the histories of literature written on both sides of the border. One of the reasons that favours the limitation of the reception of this literature is the use of the local vernacular. It is brought in as a linguistic resource that creates contrasts with the standard language within the texts. The presence of the vernacular has often fostered the error of classifying the Viennese Popular Theatre as vernacular literature. A detailed analysis of the linguistic expression of the popular language, featured in the works, shows that these are dialectally marked texts. The presence of dialectal features does neither prevent the supraregional understandability of these texts nor justify the local confinement of a literature with an aesthetic value that would justify its incorporation into the canon of world literature.