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Heiligenanstalt
poetry, Austria, tr Rosmarie Waldrop
94 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Friederike Mayröcker
110 books53 followersFriederike Mayröcker (born 20 December 1924 in Vienna) is an Austrian poet. From 1946 to 1969 Mayröcker was an English teacher at several public schools in Vienna. In 1969 she took a release from working as a teacher and in 1977 she retired early.
She started writing as a 15-year-old. In 1946, she meet Otto Basil who published some of her first works in his avant-garde journal Plan. Mayröcker's poems were published a few years later by renowned literary critic Hans Weigel. She was eventually introduced to the Wiener Gruppe, a group of mostly surrealist and expressionist Austrian authors.
Friederike Mayröcker is recognized as one of the most important contemporary Austrian poets. She also had success with her prose and radio plays. Four of them she wrote together with Ernst Jandl, with whom she lived together from 1954 until his death in 2000.
Her prose is often described as autofictional, since Mayröcker uses quotes of private conversations and excerpts from letters and diaries in her work.
Mayröcker describes her working process as follows: "I live in pictures. I see everything in pictures, my complete past, memories are pictures. I transform pictures into language by climbing into the picture. I walk into it until it becomes language."
A German biographical movie documenting Mayröcker's life and work was released in 2008
She started writing as a 15-year-old. In 1946, she meet Otto Basil who published some of her first works in his avant-garde journal Plan. Mayröcker's poems were published a few years later by renowned literary critic Hans Weigel. She was eventually introduced to the Wiener Gruppe, a group of mostly surrealist and expressionist Austrian authors.
Friederike Mayröcker is recognized as one of the most important contemporary Austrian poets. She also had success with her prose and radio plays. Four of them she wrote together with Ernst Jandl, with whom she lived together from 1954 until his death in 2000.
Her prose is often described as autofictional, since Mayröcker uses quotes of private conversations and excerpts from letters and diaries in her work.
Mayröcker describes her working process as follows: "I live in pictures. I see everything in pictures, my complete past, memories are pictures. I transform pictures into language by climbing into the picture. I walk into it until it becomes language."
A German biographical movie documenting Mayröcker's life and work was released in 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 14, 2012
A perfect book. The relation between music and language has rarely been so indirectly evoked and with such glorious results. All four pieces here directly reference music and use musicians as starting points, but the writing is not about music necessarily, and is not obviously 'musical' either. That's why what it does it does so rapturously. The backbeat and the melody are silent undercurrents.
And the writing has uniqueness and insight on every page. What a writer. Flip it open anywhere and find conchs like this:
"Echolalia : and hesitant, poison-wisest."
"Chivalry = seated on horses, same qualities. Falls. Epilepsy)."
"antler storm and 1 mystery"
"when we came out of the house, brief fright. finger exercises, substitute rain field."
"lucky teeth"
"cliché and seastar, upfolding"
"Psyche! Side-glances! Christ!"
And the writing has uniqueness and insight on every page. What a writer. Flip it open anywhere and find conchs like this:
"Echolalia : and hesitant, poison-wisest."
"Chivalry = seated on horses, same qualities. Falls. Epilepsy)."
"antler storm and 1 mystery"
"when we came out of the house, brief fright. finger exercises, substitute rain field."
"lucky teeth"
"cliché and seastar, upfolding"
"Psyche! Side-glances! Christ!"
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July 29, 2024"How can I thank you for not refusing my letters on a sad subject." (82)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews