"Sei du bei mir in meiner Sprache Tollheit": Mayröcker

With her texts, the great Austrian author Friederike Mayröcker ventured into uncharted territory in multiple respects. Literary studies must therefore engage this equally fascinating and enigmatic body of work in innovative ways. This collected volume focuses on Mayröcker`s later and latest writings. It examines from various perspectives how ecstatic speech manifests poetically. The individual contributions inquire into what makes this `ecstatic language` special, what norms it transcends, how it has evolved over the years, and in which philosophical tradition it is rooted. Expressions of the ecstatic are explored in prose texts, poems, radio plays, and in the text genre characteristic of her writing which Mayröcker named `prom. To facilitate a deeper understanding of this unique language, often perceived as difficult, the essays highlight the cultural context in which Mayröcker`s work exists. They demonstrate through intertextual references that the author was a passionate reader who engaged intensely with both contemporary and older texts. The numerous mentions of paintings and musical pieces testify to Mayröcker`s lifelong fascination with visual arts and music. The distinctive, increasingly melancholic `tone` of her later years can also be attributed to her personal life circumstances: the loss of her life and writing partner Ernst Jandl and her growing frailty in old age. Nevertheless, Mayröcker retained until the end the ability to connect the `tragic` aspect of ecstasy with the `euphoric.` The result are ethereal linguistic constructs of remarkable lightness and stunning irony. The volume offers innovative perspectives on Mayröcker`s late work, which is read here against the backdrop of the long European tradition of melancholic ecstasy. The contributors are all recognized experts in Austrian avant-garde literature.