The project, funded by the FWF and DFG in the D-A-CH format, is the result of a collaboration with the Institute for Cultural Studies (IKW) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The project aims to explore identity-forming narratives about the Danube in the 20th and 21st centuries—both in visual and textual media—where the Danube takes shape for specific social communities and becomes a site of identification, examined through cultural studies perspectives.
Key outcomes of the project include essays as well as the Sammelband Der montierte Fluss. Donaunarrative in Text, Film und Fotografie (Stuttgart, 2023) and the collective monograph Reading the Danube (forthcoming). Additionally, in 2025, another monograph focusing on the representation of river spaces in textual and audiovisual narratives will be published. These representations shape the imaginary of the Danube, depicting it as a ribbon, a segment in national grand narratives, an axis of an extensive network, a natural spatial identifier for regions, or as an "other," heterotopic space.
The project's findings have been featured in radio broadcasts and press coverage (including two radio programs on SWR and Ö1, and a press article in Der Standard). For a broader audience, the team has presented its research on various themes connected to the river in the form of short cultural-historical insights. We invite you to explore over 30 multimedia "mini-stories," such as Walzer, Der Eiserne Vorhang, Blau, Erinnerungsorte, and Donauschwaben, on the project's website: www.diedonaulesen.com