Abstract: Based on the ambivalence of the concept of nature and the politicization of ecological discourses in Elfriede Jelinek's literary work, this article examines Jelinek's theater text Sonne, los jetzt! with regard to the political-ecological discourses addressed within it. It takes a closer look at the speaking positions in the text; intertextual references to philosophy, mythology, and scientific sources; and the problematization of climate change and the associated apocalyptic scenarios. Of particular interest are the questions: What is the political element of this theater text? In what way are political and ecological discourses intertwined and to what extent do they influence each other?
Abstract: This essay examines Jelinek's early prose texts, Die Liebhaberinnen and Oh Wildnis, oh Schutz vor ihr , which illustrate ecofeminist theses avant la lettre through the depiction of the oppressive connections between nature and women as well as societal issues. The examination refers to two strands of ecofeminism: social ecofeminism, which supports a natural connection between women and nature, and cultural ecofeminism, which critically questions such a connection and is based on social construction. Personified Nature, animals, and women are portrayed as oppressed groups whose status as "the Other" is maintained through male violence and capitalist dominance in these texts. Occasionally, some women and Nature succeed in emancipating themselves, but only by adopting violent or capitalist-patriarchal strategies themselves. Through Jelinek's sharp and revealing language style, the violence and hierarchy embedded in societal structures are exposed, and the idealization of nature is criticized.
Abstract: Elfriede Jelinek's feminist-based work is increasingly concerned with ecological issues and has taken on a clear ecofeminist perspective. This article follows this trend using the example of the author's most recent theater texts ( Schwarzwasser, LÄRM, Angabe der Person , and the theater trilogy Sonne / Luft / Asche ), which focus strongly on the climate catastrophe. The main focus is on Jelinek's treatment of the Gaia motif, which she uses to reinterpret the earth in ecofeminist terms. The texts thus illustrate the social construction of nature and gender as the result of specific, ideologically characterized instruments of power and the structural connection between the oppression of women and the exploitation or destruction of the natural environment.
Abstract: Based on Jelinek's understanding of humanity in Kein Einer und kein Andrer mehr (2023), this article examines how the focus on an "ecological imperative" of responsibility (Hans Jonas) can be reconciled with the idea of an aesthetically autonomous literature. Jelinek's play Kein Licht (2011) reflects environmental pollution and environmental destruction by bringing together an ethically connoted critique (the good) and an aesthetic focused on autonomy (the beautiful). Despite the massive presence of ecological themes in Jelinek's texts around the turn of the millennium, it is ultimately not possible to speak of a (substantive) replication of those themes. Rather, all supposedly direct references to ecology, the climate crisis, criticism of the lack of human responsibility and the lack of action to protect nature take a "detour" via the musical aesthetics of the texts.
Abstract: For the theater texts examined—the Corona play Lärm. Blindes sehen. Blinde sehen! , the supplementary text Was ich sagen wollte , and the dystopian trilogy Sonne / Luft / Asche —a poetics of dissolution of boundaries is constitutive in terms of content and form. It takes place on four levels: (1) between literature in a narrower, poetic sense, everyday life influenced by the media in the twenty-first century, the narratives of ancient mythology, the "myths of everyday life" and politics; (2) between genres and text forms (essay, play, ethical-political manifesto); (3) as a change of external and internal speakers and perspectives in the text; (4) in the combination of a cosmic perspective of the creation and destruction of worlds, history, politics, and the most personal feelings of grief over the loss of a loved one. This fourfold poetics of dissolution of boundaries combines aesthetic perception, social ethics, and political-feminist criticism to create an aesthetic form of resistance.
