Elfriede Jelinek, Lust [Lust]

Linda C. DeMeritt (Allegheny College)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1989

Places

Austria (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

In an interview from 1988, Elfriede Jelinek stated: “The project I am currently working on is an attempt to find an aesthetic method to express the obscene, to express pornography” (Interview with Elfriede Jelinek by Gabriele Presber, Die Kunst ist weiblich, Munich: Droemer Knaur, 1988, p. 108). These words became the descriptor for her next novel, with critics and readers alike anxiously awaiting publication of a work hyped in the press as a pornographic novel told from a woman’s perspective. Upon publication of the novel titled Lust [Lust] in 1989, these expectations vaulted the text to the top of the German best-seller list, where it remained for weeks. …

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1782 words

Citation: DeMeritt, Linda C.. "Lust". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 October 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19700, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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