What is it about?
The article explores how natural forces and technology relentlessly imprint themselves on the bodies of Marlen Haushofer's and Thomas von Steinaecker's lonely protagonists. The article interrogates notions of loneliness depicted in Haushofer’s novel, questions the Cartesian emphasis on the mind rather than the body as creator of knowledge, and exposes the tensions created by the human drive to control nature through technology.
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Why is it important?
This article re-reads Marlen Haushofer’s seminal novel Die Wand (1963) through the lenses of Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzshe, and her 21st-century successor Thomas von Steinaecker. Demonstrating the influence of Haushofer on von Steinaecker’s novel reveals how crucial developments in discourses around loneliness, nature, and technology from the second half of the 20th century are reworked and reimagined for our highly technologized contemporary age.
Perspectives
This article is the work of several years of research. A first draft was presented at a conference celebrating the centenary of Marlen Haushofer's birth, which was held at the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre in London. The article was finished during a research visit at the Centre for Comparative Studies, University of Lisbon.
Benjamin Schaper
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Loneliness, Nature, and Technology: Questions of Embodiment in Haushofer's Die Wand and von Steinaecker's Die Verteidigung des Paradieses, Journal of Austrian Studies, September 2023, Project Muse,
DOI: 10.1353/oas.2023.a906958.
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