Von der Romantischen zur Konstruktivistischen Subjektvorstellung. Zu Elfreide Jelineks Krankheit oder Moderne Fraue.

Abstract

Like most of Elfriede Jelinek’s works, the play Krankheit oder Moderne Frauen (1984) has many intertextual references. As it will be demonstrated by quoting the specific motifs and characters of dark romanticism, Jelinek’s text refers not only to quoted works, but also to the conception of female and male identities as these were presented in romantic literature. The aim of this study is to analyse the mechanisms used in the text to question this conception and to present the characters’ identities as the effects of those discourses about female and male identities constantly repeated in the play. To that end, I will use Judith Butler’s performative theory of Gender as the theoretical framework for my analysis, which, I hope, will offer a new interpretation of the play.