Elfriede Jelinek, Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren Mann verlassen hatte oder Stützen der Gesellschaften [What Happened after Nora Left Her Husband or, Pillars of Society]

Linda C. DeMeritt (Allegheny College)
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Elfriede Jelinek’s first play,

Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren Mann verlassen hatte; oder Stützen der Gesellschaften

[

What Happened after Nora Left Her Husband; or Pillars of Society

] premiered October 1979 in Graz, Austria, with Kurt Josef Schildknecht as director. The Nobel Prize winning author’s theatrical debut has been largely neglected by critical circles and the media; yet it serves to introduce many of the themes and formal innovations that characterize the author’s entire literary

oeuvre

. The play challenges the optimistic confidence of the women’s movement gaining momentum during the late 1970s in West Germany and Austria. Jelinek borrows Henrik Ibsen’s main figure from

A Doll’s House

(1879) and traces Nora’s attempt at self-realization. However, where Ibsen’s…

1550 words

Citation: DeMeritt, Linda C.. "Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren Mann verlassen hatte oder Stützen der Gesellschaften". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16861, accessed 29 March 2024.]

16861 Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren Mann verlassen hatte oder Stützen der Gesellschaften 3 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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