Eingeborene Im Paradies

Since the 18th century, literature has played a major role in the perception of the Alps as a locus amoenus. Thereafter the Alps served as a subject functionalized in a wide variety of ways for the projection of time-bound desires, feelings, or insights. In the 20th century, by contrast, interest in the Alps has been directed more specifically toward the tensions obtaining between landscape idealization and modern mass tourism. Satire, social criticism, criticism of the appropriation of this landscape by the tourist industry, and deconstruction of media enactment are the terms of reference for an analysis of relevance both for literary criticism and cultural studies.