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Marlen Haushofer

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Marlen Haushofer née Marie Helene Frauendorfer (11 April 1920 – 21 March 1970) was an Austrian author, most famous for her novel The Wall.

Biography

Haushofer was born in Frauenstein in Upper Austria. She attended Catholic boarding school in Linz, and went on to study German literature in Vienna, as well as Graz. After her years in school, she settled in Steyr.

In 1941, she married Manfred Haushofer, a dentist, and had two sons, Christian and Manfred.[1] In 1950, they divorced, only to remarry in 1958.

Work

Earning literary awards as early as 1953, Haushofer went on to publish her first novel, A Handful of Life in 1955. In 1956, she won the Theodor-Körner Prize for early contributions and projects involving art and culture. In 1958, her novella We Murder Stella was published.

The Wall, considered her finest achievement, was completed in 1963.[2] The novel was written out four times in longhand between 1960 and 1963, but had to wait until 1968, two years before Haushofer's death, to be printed.[3] In a letter written to a friend in 1961, Marlen describes the difficulty with its composition:

I am writing on my novel and everything is very cumbersome because I never have much time and, mainly, because I can not embarrass myself. I must continuously inquire whether what I say about animals and plants is actually correct. One can not be precise enough. I would be very happy, indeed, if I were able to write the novel only half as well as I am imagining it in my mind.[3]

Haushofer commented a year later in a letter to the same friend:

I am extremely industrious. My novel is completed in its first draft. I have already completed one hundred pages of the rewrite. Altogether there will be 360 pages. Writing strains me a great deal and I suffer from headaches. But I hope that I will be finished by the beginning of May (I must allow at least four weeks for the typing)... And the household must keep on running also. All that is very difficult for me because I can only concentrate on one thing and forcing me to be versatile makes me extremely nervous. I have the feeling as if I were writing into the air.[3]

Her overall addition to Austrian literature, as well as her last short-story collection, Terrible Faithfulness, earned her a Grand Austrian State Prize for literature in 1968.[4] Her last novel, The Attic, was published in 1969, as was her autobiographical account of a childhood, Nowhere Ending Sky.[3]

Death and legacy

Haushofer's grave.

In 1970, she died of bone cancer at a clinic in Vienna. Her writing has influenced authors like Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, who dedicated one of her Princess Plays to Haushofer.[5]

Bibliography

  • A Handful of Life (1955)
  • We Murder Stella (1958, novella)
  • The Wall (1963, translated into English 1990)
  • Terrible Faithfulness (1968, short stories)
  • The Loft (1969, translated into English 2011)[6]
  • The Attic (1969)
  • Nowhere Ending Sky (1966, translated into English 2013)[7]

References

  1. ^ Wassenberg, Charlotte (1998). "Autorendatenbank". Marlen Haushofer. SG Sint Ursula. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  2. ^ Haushofer, Marlen (1990). The Wall. Translated by Shaun Whiteside. San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press. ISBN 1-57344-094-9.
  3. ^ a b c d Cornick, Lisa (Spring 1992). "Identity in Women's Writings: The Proclivity of Solitude and Self - Marlen Haushofer's Austrian Utopia and Anna LaBastille's American Wilderness". Mount Olive Review: Images of Women in Literature. 6. North Carolina: 25–36. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  4. ^ Gotschi, Beatrix (2010). "Marlen Haushofer Biografie". Marlen Haushofer. Verein Kultur Plus - EuroJournal. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  5. ^ Jelinek, Elfriede (2005), Princess Dramas - The Wall, translated by Lilian Friedberg, retrieved 10 April 2013
  6. ^ Haushofer, Marlen (2011). The Loft. Translated by Amanda Prantera. Quartet Books. ISBN 070437207X. Original title: Die Mansarde.
  7. ^ Haushofer, Marlen (2013). Nowhere Ending Sky. Translated by Amanda Prantera. Quartet Books. ISBN 0704373130. Original title: Himmel, der nirgendwo endet.

Further reading

  • Wahrscheinlich bin ich verrückt (A biography by Daniela Strigl)
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