Marlen Haushofer in Context (Online)
INGEBORG BACHMANN CENTRE FOR AUSTRIAN LITERATURE & CULTURE
at the Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London
Booking is now open for the online conference
Marlen Haushofer in Context
Start: 14:00 on Monday, 17 May 2021
End: 12:00 on Wednesday, 19 May 2021
Marlen Haushofer's dystopian novel Die Wand has reached a wide and varied audience since its publication in 1963: far from being restricted to an academic readership, it has become both a cult book and a modern classic. Despite having written an international bestseller, Marlen Haushofer remains a relatively undiscovered figure and presence within her generation of Austrian writers. In this she is comparable to Ilse Aichinger and Gerhard Fritsch, and in marked contrast to Ingeborg Bachmann and Thomas Bernhard.
This conference, originally timed to mark the 100th anniversary of Haushofer's birth and the 50th of her death, is broadly conceived. It will seek to situate her work within the historical contexts of the post-war period and the Cold War, as well as within the cultural contexts of Austrian literature in particular and dystopian fiction in general.
Programme
Monday, 17 May 2021
14.00-17.15
Welcome and Introduction
Keynote LectureDaniela Strigl (Vienna): Wer hat Angst vor Marlen Haushofer? Humor, Sarkasmus, Grausamkeit in der österreichischen Literatur nach 1945
Marlen Mairhofer (Salzburg), Körper und Schrift bei Haushofer und Bachmann
Helmut Grugger (Limerick): Das ‘Henkerspiel‘ und darüber hinaus. Zur Darstellung des kindlichen Ich in seiner Eigenheit in Marlen Haushofers Himmel, der nirgendwo endet
Tuesday, 18 May 2021
10.00-12.00
Keynote LectureMargaret Littler (Manchester): Posthumanism and Die Wand on Page and Screen
Sarah Neelsen (Paris): Marlen Haushofer als SF-Autorin? Science Fiction, String Figures and Speculative Feminism
Julia Freytag (Hamburg): ‘Wände, die nirgendwo enden‘. Vom Schreiben hinter der Wand bei Marlen Haushofer
14.00-16.00
Anna Richards (London): ‘Die Freundschaft unserer entfernten Vettern’: Feminism and Animal Families in Marlen Haushofer’s Die Wand
Thomas Kronschläger (Braunschweig): Marlen Haushofer für alle Alter – Eine Rekontextualisierung Haushofers aus der Perspektive der Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung
Emily Jeremiah (London): Affect, Embodiment, and Space in Marlen Haushofer’s Wir töten Stella
Benjamin Schaper (Oxford/IMLR): Loneliness, Nature, and Technology: Questions of Embodiment in Haushofer’s Die Wand, Seethaler’s Ein ganzes Leben, and von Steinaecker’s Die Verteidigung des Paradieses
Wednesday, 19 May 2021
10.00-12.00
Rosanna Gangemi (Brussels): Windows and other Reflecting Devices. An Epiphany of the Visible in Marlen Haushofer’s Œuvre
Caitríona Ní Dhúill (Cork): Biophilia Against the Odds: Eco-dystopian Protagonists from Haushofer to Margaret Atwood
Justyna Górny (Warsaw): Bilder aus der Schulzeit ─ weibliche Adoleszenz in der Literatur der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts
Participation is free, but advance registration is essential: https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/24132
Booking closes 16 May 2021