In Greek mythology, the River Styx separates the world of the living from the realm of the dead. The Greek hero Achilles was bathed in it and thus gained his invulnerability. Johann Strauss’s ‘The Blue Danube’ is regarded as the epitome of the Viennese waltz and is performed every year at the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert and broadcast around the world. Flowing waters have therefore always played an important role and hold strong symbolic significance for humanity.
In a Europe-wide HERA/CHANSE consortium called LIMINALWATER, researchers from the UK, France, Portugal, Croatia and Austria are taking an interdisciplinary approach to waterways in borderlands. Together, they are investigating how these appear as spaces of crisis in literature, film and culture, history and society.
Three rivers that connect
At the University of Graz, the FWF-funded sub-project is based at the Institute of Slavic Studies and forms part of the ‘Dimensions of Europe’ research focus. In “RIVERS IN CRISIS”, literary scholars Yvonne Živković and Stefanie Populorum turn their attention to the Danube, Drava and Drina. These three rivers connect Austria with the Western Balkans. They traverse landscapes, political orders and historical spheres of experience. “Unlike in Western Europe, rivers in the Balkans, particularly those in the former Yugoslavia, hold a special significance. People and rivers share a strong, symbiotic relationship. This is especially true because, due to political and social circumstances, technological change arrived there later than elsewhere,” emphasises project leader Yvonne Živković.
The academic inquiry focuses on the question of how Austrian and ex-Yugoslav texts and films from 1918 to the present day narrate crises through the lens of rivers. “Authors such as Friedericke Mayröcker, Frieda Paris and Nobel Prize-winning author Ivo Andrić have frequently addressed this theme in their works,” emphasises the Croatian-born researcher. The research examines prose, travelogues, folk tales, poetry and films. They deal with wars, migration, environmental destruction, climate change, floods, droughts, pollution, human trafficking and collective belonging.
Spaces of memory and conflict
In these narratives, rivers appear not merely as transport and trade routes. They are places of memory and identity. It is along them that notions of homeland, nation, cultural heritage and belonging take shape. At the same time, they reveal the extent to which people strive to organise and control waterways. Political borders, surveillance, straightening, dam construction and economic exploitation clash with the dynamics of the river landscapes. Just how controversial these river narratives can be is demonstrated by Peter Handke’s work “A Winter Journey to the Rivers Danube, Sava, Morava and Drina, or Justice for Serbia”. In it, the Austrian author combines a travelogue with a politically highly controversial interpretation of the Yugoslav Wars.
Exhibition: “Troubled Waters: Waterways in Crisis”
“The aim of the project is to develop a transnational map of literary and cinematic river narratives. It is intended to highlight how the Danube, Drau and Drina are linked through historical experiences of crisis,” explains Živković.
Public outreach plays a key role in this. Together with the Akademie Graz, the project team is preparing the exhibition “Troubled Waters: Waterways in Crisis”. It makes central themes accessible to a wider audience and also includes Styrian rivers. The exhibition will open on 28 May 2026 at 7 pm with a reading and guided tour at Neutorgasse 42 in Graz and will run until 10 July 2026.