Written throughout the 1930s, ‘The Post Office Girl’ was an incomplete fiction novel left considerably fragmented among the literary remains of Austrian-Jewish author, Stefan Zweig. After being considerably reworked by Knut Beck, Zweig’s novel was first published posthumously in 1982 and since then publishers have patched together the translated manuscript, reworking and re-editing over nine new editions before their release.
While books have been preserved for centuries, most historic ephemera—ration cards, telegrams, letters, train tickets—have only survived by chance. As artefacts of everyday life, historic ephemera can help us understand what was going on in the world at a specific time, but only in the last decade have libraries, museums and archives begun to understand its significance.
Paper Trails unearths the visual history of century-old ephemera and their uses, as well as how ephemera can act as a communicative device called a paratext; a paratext is any material associated with, but separate from a primary text, that changes the way a person interprets and understands a story (Visual Writing by Zöe Sadokierski, 2010)
Found while scrolling through Reddit for novel recommendations that heavily featured ephemera, I came across ‘The Post Office Girl’, a historic novel that referenced ephemera that could enhance the narrative. Critical analysis of The Post Office Girl and identifying any ephemera Zweig explicitly referenced and inferred within the novel, helped me define the areas for my experimentation.
This ephemera was searched for and curated into an archive of visual references from eBay listings, creative commons material and my personal collection, to ensure that each artefact I illustrated was as authentic to 1920s Austria as possible; these references assisted me in adding credible details to each iteration of ephemera I digitally collaged.
Additionally, utilising a variety of creative commons material, scans of old paper I collected, vectorised artwork and hand-generated writing penned by elderly participants, ensured that the colours and textures of each iterated item of ephemera I developed sang true to what it’s physical nature would have been.
I acknowledge each illustrated artefact in this fictional archive is illuminated with my own interpretation of Zweig's 1930 novel; a concept I played into through the use of easter eggs. These hidden messages referenced my research process, such as practitioners and precedents that also use ephemera to expand fictional narratives.
The publication uses experimental typesetting and strong typographic hierarchy to structure its content. The contemporary serif from Luzi Type and an orange accent for questions and endnotes was specifically used to distinguish the voice of this publication as modern from the historic fiction novel examined.
Paper Trails structure is separated into two parts to pay homage to the historic novel examined. Part One features the digitally collaged ephemera I have imagined that is implied and explicitly referenced within Stefan Zweig’s novel, ‘The Post Office Girl’. These artefacts are accompanied with provocations and questions, as well as quotes taken directly from the novel, in order to encourage contemporary readers to expand their experience of the narrative.
As there is a frustration that Stefan Zweig cannot resolve the ending to ‘The Post Office Girl’ because he is no longer alive, Part Two of the publication instead positions the fictional ephemera I have created, as speculative objects that help readers project what might have occurred after the end of the novel. Additionally the reader is given prompts and questions to help facilitate them in thinking of these possibilities.
I’m an avid believer that great literature shouldn’t need to be explained, which is why Paper Trails is a publication that uses ephemera as a playful way to bridge the gap between the fascinating 1930s Austrian fiction novel, ‘The Post Office Girl’ by Stefan Zweig and it’s context to our contemporary world.
This work was produced in the Visual Communication Honours degree at the University of Technology Sydney under the mentorship of Dr Zoë Sadokierski.
