Marianne Fritz

Marianne Fritz (14 December 1948 – 1 October 2007)[1] was an Austrian writer and novelist. She is known for her multi-volume series of novels dealing with the history of Austria in the twentieth century. Her work is noted for its experimental nature and extraordinary length.

Marianne Fritz
Born14 December 1948 
Weiz 
Died1 October 2007  (aged 58)
Awards
  • City of Vienna Literature Prize (1994) 

Life

Marianne Fritz was born in Weiz, a municipality in Styria, Austria.[1] In the 1970s, she married the writer Wolfgang Fritz and moved to Vienna, where she would live the rest of her life. In 1978, she published her first novel Die Schwerkraft der Verhältnisse (The Weight of Things), for which she was awarded that year's Robert Walser Prize.

The publication of this novel marked the beginning of a massive, multi-volume project referred to as Die Festung (The Fortress).[2] This project was based on the history of the First and Second Austrian Republics. She would work on it for the rest of her life.

She published her second novel and the first volume of this project in 1980 as Das Kind der Gewalt und die Sterne der Romani (The Child of Violence and the Stars of the Romani). This complex novel sold poorly, leading her publisher to drop her.[3]

She next published Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst (Whose Language you do not understand) in 1985. The 3,000 plus page novel was noted for its complexity and linguistic experimentation.[4] The work was received with mostly hostile reviews at the time.[5]

She continued to push the linguistic boundaries of German with the publication in the 1990s of two additional volumes of Die Festung under the names Naturgemäß I and II.

Marianne Fritz died in 2007 in Vienna at the age of 58 after a serious blood infection. At the time of her death, she left behind an unfinished draft for Naturgemäß III.

In November 2014, a park was named in her honor in Wien-Neubau.[6]

Bibliography

In German
  • Die Schwerkraft der Verhältnisse. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer 1978. (= Collection S. Fischer Band 4.) ISBN 3-596-22304-0.
  • Das Kind der Gewalt und die Sterne der Romani. Roman. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer 1980. ISBN 3-10-022903-7.
  • Was soll man da machen. Ein Einführungsband zum Roman Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1985, ISBN 3-518-03216-X.
  • Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst (Ausgabe in drei Bänden). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1985. ISBN 3-518-03562-2.
  • Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst (Ausgabe in zwölf Bänden). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1985. ISBN 3-518-09706-7.
  • Naturgemäß I. Entweder Angstschweiß / Ohnend / Oder Pluralhaft (Fünf Bände); Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1996. 3-518-40789-9.
  • Naturgemäß II. Es ist ein Ros entsprungen / Wedernoch / heißt sie (Fünf Bände); Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1998. ISBN 3-518-40992-1.
  • Naturgemäß III. Oder doch / Noli me tangere / "Rührmichnichtan!" [1], Online-Fassung, Wien 2011

In English
  • The Weight of Things (Dorothy, 2015), translated by Adrian Nathan West, ISBN 978-0-9897607-7-5.

References
  1. "Contemporary Authors Online". Biography in Context. Gale. 2006. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  2. West, Adrian Nathan. Afterword. The Weight of Things. By Marianne Fritz. Trans. Adrian Nathan West. St Louis: Dorothy, 2015. 131.
  3. West (1 October 2015). "On Translating Marianne Fritz and redefining the idea of literary genius". Theparisreview.org. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  4. von Nagel (16 December 1985). "2,8: Kilogramm Weltliteratur". spiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  5. West 2015, 132
  6. "Neubau – Eröffnung Marianne-Fritz-Park". Wien.gv.at. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
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