Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer (born 31 August 1936) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n novelist and poet, one of the leading women prose writers in German. Her mainly fictional works present the horrors of Fascism, especially the repression of minorities.

Early life and education

Kerschbaumer was born in

Garches Garches () is a Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department, in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris. Garches has remained largely residential, with a population of 17,898 ...

near Paris where her Cuban father and Austrian mother were living to escape the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. After spending her childhood years mainly in Costa Rica and the Austrian Tyrol, she worked in England for a year when she was 17 and then went on to Italy. In 1957, she returned to Austria to further her education. From 1963 she studied Romance languages at

Vienna University The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

and spent two years in Romania before earning a doctorate in Romanian linguistics in 1973. In 1971 she married the painter Helmut Kurz-Goldenstein.

Career

After completing her studies, Kerschbaumer worked as a translator, mainly from Spanish. Her first novel, ''Der Schwimmer'' (The Swimmer) was published in 1976, describing how inmates tried to escape from an institution in the Spanish State. In 1980 she published ''Der weibliche Name des Widerstands'' (The Feminine Name of Resistance) consisting of seven fictional accounts of women in concentration camps during the world war. A combination of documentary literature and creative writing, the work appeared as a television film the following year (

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

with Susanne Zanke) and was published as a popular paperback edition in 1982. Her third work, ''Schwestern'' (Sisters, 1982) is a novel tracing the experiences of several generations of an Austrian family as the events of the 20th century affect their lives. Kerschbaumer has also written plays which have been well received on Austrian radio but have not been published. From 1992 to 2000 Kerschbaumer wrote the three novels of the ''Die Fremde'' series, an

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

trilogy tracing the life of a girl born in the Austrian alps, who goes to France and England before studying Italian language and art in Tuscany. Her most recent work, ''Wasser und Wind'' (Water and Wind, 2006), is a collection of poems written between 1988 and 2005. A number of Kerschbaumer's texts have been set to music by, among others,

Olga Neuwirth Olga Neuwirth (; born 4 August 1968) is an Austrian contemporary classical composer, visual artist and author. She is famed especially for her operas and music theater works, many of which have treated sociopolitical themes. She has emphasized an ...

, Ulf Dieter Soyka.

References

External links

List of works from Literaturhaus WienMarie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer's homepageCatalog of Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer's works to 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerschbaumer, Marie-Therese 1936 births Living people People from Nanterre Writers from Vienna 20th-century Austrian novelists 21st-century Austrian novelists Austrian women novelists Austrian women poets 20th-century Austrian women writers 21st-century Austrian women writers 20th-century Austrian translators

Early life and education

Career

See also

References

External links