The title of the present volume Jura Soyfer and His Time indicates its dual aim: to examine the life and works of this extraordinary author who died much too early and to place him and his writings into the broader context of the period in which he lived and created - the 1930s - by discussing some of the most important authors writing at the same time, even though they might not have interacted with Soyfer.

This approach of juxtaposing Soyfer with the literary scene around him has made it possible to demonstrate the wide variety of literary themes and techniques that coexisted during these highly politicized years of turmoil and uncertainty in Austria. Naturally the list of authors writing concurrently with Soyfer is not complete, but the writers discussed here serve as representative examples of the major trends and tendencies.