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The Research Platform Elfriede Jelinek: Texts – Kontexts – Reception of the University of Vienna

The 2016 conference of the Austrian Studies Association (ASA) will focus on the artistic and intercultural dialogue between the United States of America and Austria.

Elfriede Jelinek’s oeuvre, which establishes many connections to the US at various levels,  will be a point of departure for our explorations: Ever since she started writing, the Austrian Nobelprize winner has taken a critical look at US-American pop culture phenomena and pop myths; she has repeatedly shown her literary engagement with the political conditions, the power structures of the mass media, and the economic crisis in the US. With regard to Jelinek’s aesthetics, one can also note interconnections and influences: for example, Jelinek’s translation of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity Rainbow has had a major impact on her own intertextual writing style, and in her essays, plays, and libretti we can discern her familiarity with the films of David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock, et al. as well as with the art of Paul McCarthy or Cindy Sherman. Yet another important dimension is the reception of Jelinek in the USA—as is manifest in translations, performances, and scholarly treatments.

Taking the US-links of Jelinek’s work as a springboard, the conference presentations are to examine the artistic and intercultural relations between the USA and Austria, which include all forms of art: literature, theater, film, visual arts, and music. The time period to be considered for conference papers spans the 19th to the 21st centuries.

Organizing Committee:  Pia Janke, Maria-Regina Kecht, Teresa Kovacs

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