Rita Svandrlik
Zeitschrift des Verbandes Polnischer Germanisten, Zeszyt 3 (2012), 2012, s. 342 - 355
„I don't speak Human". On the murdering of reality in works: Jelinek read with Bachmann.
Both Bachmann and Jelinek hold that the underlying causes of the greatest crimes can be sought and represented in everyday acts of violence. The aim in this paper, however, is not to propose a thematic investigation of the doer/ victim opposition in the works of the two authors but rather to examine the writers’ manifold poetic strategies so as undermine and liquefy the doer/victim opposition. The victim theme is also connected with a reflection on the role of the writing subject; in Bachmanns Malina as in Jelineks Greed, as well as in the latter’s Nobel acceptance speech, an unsovereign authorial role is staged whose material in the writing process becomes neither object, nor victim.