Reception of Julius von Payer's polar diaries in Christoph Ransmayr's novel "Die schrecken des eises und der finsternis"

Palimpsest is one of the characteristic features which are used by Austrian postmodernist writer Christopf Ransmayr. The purpose of the article is examination of reception’s mechanisms of polar diaries of Juluis von Payer’s Austro-Hungarian expedition participants in the «The terrors of ice and darkness”» novel. We come to a conclusion that including notes into the novel’s text helps the author to uncover the human nature in conditions of arctic robinsonade.