https://noumenapedia.net/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Marlen_HaushoferMarlen Haushofer - Revision history2026-10-31T21:21:51ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.0https://noumenapedia.net/index.php?title=Marlen_Haushofer&diff=32044&oldid=prevDeleatur yhe: Created page2026-10-31T19:01:27Z<p>Created page</p>
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[[File:Marlen_Haushofer.jpg|thumb|right|Marlen Haushofer]] <br />
'''Marlen Haushofer''' (born '''Marie Helene Frauendorfer'''; 11 April 1920 – 21 March 1970) was an Austrian author, most famous for her novel ''[[The Wall (Haushofer novel)|The Wall]]'' (1963).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Spice|first=Nicholas|date=18 December 2014|title=She shall be nameless|language=en|volume=36|work=London Review of Books|issue=24|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n24/nicholas-spice/she-shall-be-nameless|access-date=20 September 2021|issn=0260-9592}}</ref><br />
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==Life and career==<br />
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=== Early life ===<br />
Marie Helene Frauendorfer was born in Frauenstein, [[Molln|Municipality Moln]] in [[Upper Austria]]. She attended Catholic boarding school in [[Linz]] from 1930 until 1939,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Abraham |first=Ulf |date=1986 |title=Topos und Utopie : die Romane der Marlen Haushofer |url=https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/58758 |journal=Vierteljahresschrift des Adalbert-Stifter-Instituts des Landes Oberösterreich |volume=35 |issue=1-2 |pages=53-83 |doi=10.20378/irb-58758}}</ref> and went on to study German literature in Vienna and in [[Graz]]. After her school years she settled in [[Steyr]].<br />
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In 1941, she married Manfred Haushofer, a dentist, and had two sons, Christian and Manfred.<ref>{{cite web|last = Wassenberg|first = Charlotte|title = Autorendatenbank|work = Marlen Haushofer|publisher = SG Sint Ursula|date = 1998|url = http://www.ursula.nl/duits/autdb.htm#Haushofer|access-date = 7 April 2013|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120207055712/http://www.ursula.nl/duits/autdb.htm#Haushofer|archive-date = 7 February 2012|url-status = dead}}</ref> <br />
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=== Career ===<br />
Haushofer began her writing career in 1946, publishing short stories in newspapers and magazines. Haushofer struggled to find time for literary work between domestic chores, family demands, and helping in her husband’s dental practice. Her commitment to writing was often ridiculed.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Kecht |first=Maria-Regina |date=2007-01-01 |title=Marlen Haushofer: Recollections of Crime and Complicity |url=https://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol31/iss1/5 |journal=Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature |volume=31 |issue=1 |doi=10.4148/2334-4415.1645 |issn=2334-4415}}</ref> Haushofer and her husband divorced in 1950, but remarried each other in 1958.<br />
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In 1952, she published her first book, ''Das fünfte Jahr'', which earned her the Österreichische Förderungspreis für Literatur in 1953. She went on to publish her first novel, ''A Handful of Life'' in 1955, and, in 1956, she won the [[Theodor Körner Prize]] for her contributions to art and culture. In 1958, her novella ''[[We Murder Stella|Killing Stella]]'' was published.<br />
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''[[The Wall (Haushofer novel)|The Wall]]'', considered her finest achievement, was completed in 1963.<ref>{{cite book |last= Haushofer |first= Marlen |translator=Shaun Whiteside |translator-link=Shaun Whiteside|title= The Wall |url= https://archive.org/details/wall00haus |url-access= registration |year= 1990 |publisher= [[Cleis Press]] |location= San Francisco, CA |isbn= 1-57344-094-9}}</ref> The novel was written out four times in [[longhand]] between 1960 and 1963.<ref name="Cornick">{{cite journal|last = Cornick|first = Lisa|title = Identity in Women's Writings: The Proclivity of Solitude and Self – Marlen Haushofer's Austrian Utopia and Anna LaBastille's American Wilderness|journal = Mount Olive Review: Images of Women in Literature|volume = 6|pages = 25–36|location = North Carolina|date =Spring 1992}}</ref> In a letter written to a friend in 1961, Marlen describes the difficulty with its composition:<br />
<blockquote>I am writing on my novel and everything is very cumbersome because I never have much time, and mainly because I can not embarrass myself. I must continuously inquire whether what I say about animals and plants is actually correct. One can not be precise enough. I would be very happy, indeed, if I were able to write the novel only half as well as I am imagining it in my mind.<ref name="Cornick" /></blockquote><br />
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Haushofer commented a year later in a letter to the same friend:<br />
<blockquote>I am extremely industrious. My novel is completed in its first draft. I have already completed one hundred pages of the rewrite. Altogether there will be 360 pages. Writing strains me a great deal and I suffer from headaches. But I hope that I will be finished by the beginning of May (I must allow at least four weeks for the typing)... And the household must keep on running also. All that is very difficult for me because I can only concentrate on one thing and forcing me to be versatile makes me extremely nervous. I have the feeling as if I were writing into the air.<ref name="Cornick" /></blockquote><br />
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Her autobiographical account of childhood, ''Nowhere Ending Sky'', was published in 1966. Her overall contribution to Austrian literature, as well as her last short story collection, ''Terrible Faithfulness'', earned her the Österreichische Förderungspreis für Literatur a second time in 1968.<ref>{{cite web|last = Gotschi|first = Beatrix|title = Marlen Haushofer Biografie|work = Marlen Haushofer|publisher = Verein Kultur Plus – EuroJournal|date = 2010|url = http://www.marlenhaushofer.at/|access-date = 7 April 2013}}</ref> Her last novel, ''The Loft'', was published in 1969.<ref name="Cornick" /><br />
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=== Death ===<br />
[[File:Grab Marlen Haushofers 2.jpg|thumb|right|Haushofer's grave in Steyr City Cemetery]]<br />
In 1970, she died of [[bone cancer]] at a clinic in Vienna. She was cremated at [[Feuerhalle Simmering]], after which her ashes were buried in Steyr City Cemetery.<br />
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== Style and themes ==<br />
German philologist Ulf Abraham distinguishes four [[Literary topos|topoi]] in her fictional work, all of which also have autobiographical connections to Haushofer's own life:<ref name=":0" /><br />
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# a rural childhood idyll of “immoderate” emotions, soon lost;<br />
# a convent boarding school as a disciplinary institution;<br />
# a young woman living alone in a furnished room in the city;<br />
# the “golden cage” of bourgeois marriage and upper‑middle‑class domesticity, marked by ritual, inauthenticity, and quiet despair.<br />
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Male characters, according to Lange-Kirchheim, fall into two types: the “an‑archic” vital man (entrepreneur, lawyer, lover) and the “bland, harmless, boring” husband or intellectual. Both are linked to military and bureaucratic socialisation. Haushofer’s female protagonists are often passive and see themselves as “complements” to men; they need to be “awakened” sexually because of a repressive upbringing. The complementary gender relation is presented as a dyad of perpetrator and victim.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Lange-Kirchheim |first=Astrid |date=2007 |title=Zur Konstruktion von Männlichkeit bei Autorinnen |url=https://www.genderopen.de/25595/1868 |journal=Freiburger Geschlechterstudien |doi=10.25595/1862 |issn=0948-9975}}</ref><br />
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== Reception and legacy ==<br />
Haushofer's work was initially in the 1950s and 1960s strictly received as [[women's fiction]] by contemporary writers, critics and mentors. In the 1980s and 1990s, the new women's movement rediscovered her work and read it from a [[feminist]] lens, noting her critique of [[patriarchy]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> Her writing has influenced authors like [[List of Nobel laureates in Literature|Nobel Prize winner]] [[Elfriede Jelinek]], who dedicated one of her ''Princess Plays'' to Haushofer.<ref>{{Citation|last = Jelinek|first = Elfriede|translator=Lilian Friedberg|title = Princess Dramas – The Wall|year = 2005|url = http://a-e-m-gmbh.com/wessely/fwand_lf.htm|access-date = 10 April 2013}}</ref><br />
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=== Awards and honours ===<br />
* 1953: Österreichische Förderungspreis für Literatur for ''Das fünfte Jahr''<br />
* 1956: [[Theodor Körner Prize|Preis des Theodor-Körner-Stiftungsfonds]] for ''Die Vergißmeinnichtquelle''<br />
* 1962: Schnitzler-Stipendium des Unterrichtsministeriums<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schnitzler |first=Heinrich |date=1962 |title=A Letter from Vienna |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45275016 |journal=Journal of the International Arthur Schnitzler Research Association |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=13–17 |issn=0538-4362}}</ref><br />
* 1965: Kinderbuchpreis der Stadt Wien for ''Brav sein ist schwer''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Presse-Service |date=2019-10-22 |title=1965 |url=https://presse.wien.gv.at/historische-rk/1965/-/asset_publisher/wlyuW1CMwd9x/content/november-1965?redirect=/historische-rk/1965&inheritRedirect=true |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=Presseservice der Stadt Wien |language=de}}</ref><br />
* 1967: Kinderbuchpreis der Stadt Wien for ''Müssen Tiere draußen bleiben?''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Presse-Service |date=2019-10-22 |title=1967 |url=https://presse.wien.gv.at/historische-rk/1967/-/asset_publisher/wlyuW1CMwd9x/content/dezember-1967?redirect=/historische-rk/1967&inheritRedirect=true |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=Presseservice der Stadt Wien |language=de}}</ref><br />
* 1968: Österreichische Förderungspreis für Literatur for ''Schreckliche Treue''<br />
* 1970: Kinderbuchpreis der Stadt Wien (posthumously awarded)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Presse-Service |date=2019-10-23 |title=1970 |url=https://presse.wien.gv.at/historische-rk/1970/-/asset_publisher/wlyuW1CMwd9x/content/dezember-1970?redirect=/historische-rk/1970&inheritRedirect=true |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=Presseservice der Stadt Wien |language=de}}</ref><br />
* 2007: Literaturpreis der Stadt Steyr was renamed to Marlen-Haushofer-Literaturpreis<br />
* 2019: ''Marlen-Haushofer-Weg'' in [[Donaustadt]] was named after her<br />
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==Bibliography==<br />
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=== Novels ===<br />
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* ''Eine Handvoll Leben'' (1955). ''A Handful of Life''<br />
* ''Die Tapetentür'' (1957). ''The Jib Door'', trans. by Jerome Carlton Samuelson (1998)<br />
* ''Die Wand'' (1963). ''[[The Wall (Haushofer novel)|The Wall]],'' trans. by [[Shaun Whiteside]] (1990)<br />
* ''Himmel, der nirgendwo endet'' (1966). ''Nowhere Ending Sky'', trans. by Amanda Prantera (2013)<ref>Haushofer, Marlen (2013). ''Nowhere Ending Sky''. Translated by Amanda Prantera. Quartet Books. {{ISBN|0-7043-7313-0}}. Original title: ''Himmel, der nirgendwo endet''.</ref><br />
* ''Die Mansarde'' (1969). ''[[The Loft (novel)|The Loft]]'', trans. by Amanda Prantera (2011)<ref>Haushofer, Marlen (2011). ''The Loft''. Translated by [[Amanda Prantera]]. Quartet Books. {{ISBN|0-7043-7207-X}}. Original title: ''Die Mansarde''.</ref><br />
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=== Novellas and short story collections ===<br />
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* ''Das fünfte Jahr. Novelle'' (1952). ''The Fifth Year'', trans. Shaun Whiteside (New Directions, 2026)<br />
* ''Die Vergißmeinnichtquelle. Erzählungen'' (1956). ''The Forget-Me-Not Spring''<br />
* ''Wir töten Stella. Erzählung'' (1958). ''[[We Murder Stella|Killing Stella]]'', trans. Shaun Whiteside (2025)<br />
* ''Lebenslänglich. Erzählungen'' (1966). ''Life Sentence''<br />
* ''Schreckliche Treue. Erzählungen'' (1968). ''Terrible Faithfulness''<br />
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=== Children's books ===<br />
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* ''Brav sein ist schwer'' (1965). ''Being Good Is Hard''<br />
* ''Müssen Tiere draußen bleiben?'' (1967). ''Do Animals Have to Stay Outside?''<br />
* ''Wohin mit dem Dackel?'' (1968). ''What to Do with the Dachshund?''<br />
* ''Schlimm sein ist auch kein Vergnügen'' (1970). ''Being Bad Is No Fun Either''<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist|30em}}<br />
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===Further reading===<br />
* {{cite book | last=Strigl | first=Daniela | title="Wahrscheinlich bin ich verrückt ... " Marlen Haushofer – die Biographie |trans-title=I'm Probably Crazy | publication-place=Berlin | date=2007 | isbn=978-3-548-60784-9 | oclc=188189780 | language=de}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070216071450/http://www.ogl.at/OGL-Link/H/haushofermarlen.html Marlen Haushofer im WWW] {{in lang|de}}<br />
*[http://www.molln.cc/museum/dichter/literatur.htm Marlen Haushofer – Ihre Wurzeln in Molln] {{in lang|de}}<br />
*[http://www.marlenhaushofer.at/Biografie.htm Marlen Haushofer author page by Euro Journal] {{in lang|de}}<br />
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{{German literature}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Haushofer, Marlen}}<br />
[[Category:1920 births]]<br />
[[Category:1970 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Austrian women writers]]<br />
[[Category:Austrian women novelists]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Austrian novelists]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Austrian short story writers]]<br />
[[Category:Women science fiction and fantasy writers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century women novelists]]</div>Deleatur yhe