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Non-Sovereign Voices in Friederike Mayröcker's Aural Texts

Date Published:

8 Jan, 2017

Abstract:

 

 

Austrian neo-avant-garde authors excelled in literary forms that foregrounded the acoustic quality of voices. Their concern was not to establish the voice as a disembodied medium of pure emotionality; rather, they experimented with the corporeal materiality and technical mediality of voice and speech, and explored the ethics and aesthetics of non-sovereign, “impure” voices. After some introductory remarks on the work of Ernst Jandl, this essay argues this stance in regard to selected texts by the Viennese author Friederike Mayröcker. In a striking awareness of the cultural history of the voice, her texts present playful parodic rewritings of traditional vocal pathos genres such as the lyrical elegy, the opera aria, and the echolalic lament. They demonstrate the appealing quality of heteronomous, dispossessed speaking or singing voices, an appeal that is well worth listening to.

 

January 2017: Inge Arteel is lecturer of German Literature at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research focuses on post-1945 Austrian literature and drama – with a particular interest in experimental writers (esp. Jelinek and Mayröcker), on text and theatricality, the radio play, and gender studies. Recent publications:

 

Arteel, Inge, and Stefan Krammer, eds. 2016. In-Differenzen: Alterität im Schreiben Josef Winklers. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.

Pewny, Katharina, and Inge Arteel. 2016. “Ritual Failure Remains? The Inaccessibility of the Dead (Corpse) in Antigone and in Contemporary Post-Conflict Art.” Forum Modernes Theater: 177–88.

Arteel, Inge. 2014. “Jelinek on the Dutch-speaking stage: From Marginal Attention to Dramaturgical Success.” Austrian Studies 22: 43–58.

Arteel, Inge. 2012. Friederike Mayröcker. Hannover: Wehrhahn.

 

 

Publisher's Version

Last updated on 04/13/2020