Werner Schwab’s Followers (5)

Werner Schwab

Born

in Graz, Austria

February 04, 1958

Died

January 01, 1994

Genre

Theatre, Fiction

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Werner Schwab (4 February 1958 – 1 January 1994) was an Austrian playwright and visual artist.

From 1978 to 1982 he studied sculpture at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna. During the 1980s he worked as a sculptor and woodcutter.

Schwab was a heavy drinker who was said to have written his plays late at night while listening to loud music (particularly the band Einstürzende Neubauten, whom he was friends with). His body was found on New Year's Day 1994, he killed himself with an overdose of alcohol, he had previously stated «If I would kill myself on the day of a national holiday, my country would be so stupid to think it was a random choice.»

Schwab's first play Die Präsidentinnen (sometimes translates as First Ladies or Holy mothers) Werner Schwab (4 February 1958 – 1 January 1994) was an Austrian playwright and visual artist.

From 1978 to 1982 he studied sculpture at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna. During the 1980s he worked as a sculptor and woodcutter.

Schwab was a heavy drinker who was said to have written his plays late at night while listening to loud music (particularly the band Einstürzende Neubauten, whom he was friends with). His body was found on New Year's Day 1994, he killed himself with an overdose of alcohol, he had previously stated «If I would kill myself on the day of a national holiday, my country would be so stupid to think it was a random choice.»

Schwab's first play Die Präsidentinnen (sometimes translates as First Ladies or Holy mothers), was produced at the Theater im Künstlerhaus in Vienna in 1990. Between then and his death four years later he wrote sixteen plays, eight of which were produced during his lifetime, making his career one of the briefest, most spectacular and most controversial in contemporary German-language theatre.

Schwab's work is close to the grotesque genre. It extensively employed scatology and sex, with the peculiarity of exhibiting pulsions and taboos in a poetic framework. He renewed the tradition of German Expressionism. His plays are full of images of surreal violence and degradation, and are firmly grounded within a native Austrian tradition of Black comedy. Schwab conceived theater as anti-bourgeois.

He made use of textual collages and intertextuality. His 1995 play Troilluswahn und Cressidatheater is a rewriting of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida into the grotesque genre.

Another characteristic of his texts is to exploit the German language's capacity for neologism to a remarkable degree. He is very difficult to translate, but amongst English-language dramatists, certain stylistic parallels might be drawn between his work and that of Steven Berkoff and Enda Walsh. Vera San Payo de Lemos won the Austrian Prize for Literary Translation in 1998 and 2002 for her work in translating his work. ...more

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Werner Schwab’s books

Average rating: 4.09 · 145 ratings · 13 reviews · 32 distinct works • Similar authors

	Die Präsidentinnen 3.94 avg rating — 49 ratings — published 1991 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fäkaliendramen 4.29 avg rating — 38 ratings — published 1991 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Holy Mothers by Werner Schwab, Meredith Oakes (Translator) 3.92 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2000 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Anthology of Plays (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought. Drama Series) by Werner Schwab, Gerlinde U. Sanford, Mike Mitchell (Translator) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1999 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Abfall Bergland Cäsar: Eine Menschensammlung. Werke Band 2 by Werner Schwab, Ingeborg Orthofer (Herausgeber) 4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1992 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Königskomödien 4.67 avg rating — 6 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dramen 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	DER REIZENDE REIGEN nach dem Reigen des REIZENDEN HERRN ARTHUR SCHNITZLER liked it 3.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1996	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dead At Last, At Last No More Air by Werner Schwab, Meredith Oakes (Translation), Diana Damian Martin (Foreword) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Werke 1. Joe Mc Vie alias Josef Thierschädl it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Werner Schwab’s Followers (5)

Werner Schwab

Combine EditionsWerner Schwab’s books

Combine Editions
Werner Schwab’s books