Along with Barbara Frischmuth and Elfriede Jelinek, Marlene Streeruwitz is one of the prominent contemporary Austrian women writers and public intellectuals. Streeruwitz started writing radio plays and plays for the stage in the mid-1980s. After being disappointed by the reception of her plays in the mid-1990s, however, she turned to writing novels in 1996, and has written only a few plays since then. Her early and later plays are marked by a morbid touch, absurd action, and sometimes-unexpected brutality. In some she assembles characters from Shakespeare or Goethe’s oeuvres with, for example, Barbie and Ken, Donald Duck’s nephews, or Martians.

In the mid-1990s Streeruwitz also began publishing theoretical texts that contribute to a feminist critique of language and culture.

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Citation: Kallin, Britta. "Marlene Streeruwitz". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 June 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11721, accessed 19 March 2024.]

11721 Marlene Streeruwitz 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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