Marianne Fritz (14 December 1948 – 1 October 2007)
was an Austrian writer and novelist. She is known for her multi-volume series of novels dealing with the
history of Austria
The history of Austria covers the history of Austria and its predecessor states. In the late Iron Age Austria was occupied by people of the Hallstatt Celtic culture (c. 800 BC), they first organized as a Celtic kingdom referred to by the Romans ...
in the twentieth century. Her work is noted for its
experimental nature and extraordinary length.
Life
Marianne Fritz was born in
Weiz
Weiz () is a town in the eastern part of the Austrian state of Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the sec ...
, a municipality in
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
.
In the 1970s, she married the writer Wolfgang Fritz and moved to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, 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). This project was based on the history of the
First
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
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
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
). This complex novel sold poorly, leading her publisher to drop her.
She next published ''Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst'' (Whose Language You Do Not Understand) in 1986. The 3,300-plus page novel was noted for its complexity and linguistic experimentation.
The work was received with mostly hostile reviews at the time.
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.
Bibliography
*''Die Schwerkraft der Verhältnisse'' (S. Fischer, 1978). ''The Weight of Things'', trans. Adrian Nathan West (Dorothy, 2015; ).
*''Das Kind der Gewalt und die Sterne der Romani'' (S. Fischer, 1980).
*''Was soll man da machen'' (Suhrkamp, 1985). The first 215 pages of ''Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst''.
*''Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst'' (Suhrkamp, 1986). Published in both three-volume and twelve-volume editions.
*''Naturgemäß I. Entweder Angstschweiß / Ohnend / Oder Pluralhaft'' (Suhrkamp, 1996). Published in five volumes.
*''Naturgemäß II. Es ist ein Ros entsprungen / Wedernoch / heißt sie'' (Suhrkamp, 1998). Published in five volumes.
*''Naturgemäß III. Oder doch / Noli me tangere / "Rührmichnichtan!"'' (2011). Published online.
References
External links
Page at Modern Novel about FritzConversation between Kate Zambreno and Adrian Nathan West about Fritz from the BelieverPublisher's page for English translation of The Weight of ThingsPDF of the unpublished third part of the Naturgemäß
(in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fritz, Marianne
1948 births
2007 deaths
Austrian women writers