Incentives - New Literature from Austria

readme.cc provides multilingual access to the latest Austrian literature. In collaboration with the Literaturhaus in Vienna the reading forum offers the latest insights about literature published in Austria.

Literary journalists and researchers introduce current new publications; reading samples allow for a closer look at the texts; short portraits of the authors complement the picture.

The range of information is currently available in five languages: German, English, French, Czech and Hungarian.

The Project "Incentives" targets at the internationalization of Austrian literature, respectively the translation of current texts.

Project realization: the Office of Documentation of Contemporary Austrian Literature (reviews, author’s portraits) – The Association of Translators (translations) – readme.cc (infrastructure).

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[ Bogtip efter Literatur Schweiz ] All of the characters in Lukas Bärfuss' play "The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents" want to do what is best for mentally handicapped Dora. All but one, that is. But it is sometimes hard to know "what is best". And the best of intentions are often the hardest to put into practice. In the words of the author, this play is, among other things "about people who think liberally and act oppressively".

For years Dora has been given medication to keep her calm.  So calm that not only has she stopped throwing fits and screaming, she hardly ever laughs anymore and no longer has her own opinion on anything.  Taken off the drugs at the request of her mother, the young woman surfaces from her state of apathy.  However, the returning feelings also awaken a sexuality which is difficult to control.  It soon becomes clear that the same rules do not apply to everyone. Self-determination and a right to individual happiness are all well and good, but in the end societal norms take precedence. Dora definitively crosses the line of what is considered acceptable and responsible by wanting to have a baby. After an abortion, the young woman is sterilised against her will.

Created for Basel Theatre in 2003, Bärfuss' text deals with the taboo issues of disabled sex, involuntary medication and forced sterilisation in a subtle and non-judgemental way by placing the issue in a socio-political context. The play launched Bärfuss as an internationally renowned author.

(Alexandra von Arx, transl. by Anna Mason Willfratt)

[ Favoritcitat ] «Don't go for more than two at once, and don't change partners more than a week.»

[ Boginfo ] Bärfuss, Lukas: The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents. . (original language: German) Die sexuellen Neurosen unserer Eltern. Nick Hern Books, London, 2008 (2005). ISBN: 978-1-85459-579-9.
Oversat fra german af Nick Blackadder