Tuesday 4:30-7:10 (German House 204)

Instructor: Professor Fatima Naqvi

In German

This course will examine the works of Austrian women writers of the post-1945 period. While we will focus on the Nobel-prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, we will also look at her predecessor, Ingeborg Bachmann, and her contemporary Friederike Mayröcker. Issues we will discuss include the relationship of fascism to gender, the possibility of an "écriture féminine," mourning work, and the role of art in the public sphere. Our interest will also turn to the stylistic experiments of the three writers and their relationship to the Austrian literary avant-garde and post-dramatic theater. We will read Malina, Der Fall Franza, Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren Mann verlassen hatte oder Stützen der Gesellschaft, Krankheit oder moderne Frauen, Lust, Die Klavierspielerin, Wolken.Heim, Die Abschiede, and Die kommunizierenden Gefäße. We will also read selections from feminist literary theory.