“Obscene Fantasies” A U S T R I A N C U L T U R E Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger General Editor Vol. 44 PETER LANG New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern Frankfurt (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford Brenda Bethman “Obscene Fantasies” ’ ELFRIEDE JELINEK S GENERIC PERVERSIONS PETER LANG New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern Frankfurt (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bethman, Brenda. “Obscene fantasies”: Elfriede Jelinek’s generic perversions / Brenda Bethman. p. cm. — (Austrian culture; v. 44) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Jelinek, Elfriede, 1946– —Criticism and interpretation. 2. Paraphilias in literature. 3. Deviant behavior in literature. 4. Austria—In literature. 5. Feminism in literature. 6. Feminism and literature— Austria—History—20th century. I. Title. PT2670.E46Z53 838’.91409—dc22 2010033875 ISBN 978-1-4331-1060-3 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4539-0245-5 (e-book) ISSN 1054-058X Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council of Library Resources. © 2011 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York 29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006 www.peterlang.com All rights reserved. Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited. Printed in Germany Dedication T his book is dedicated to Larson Powell for his endless pa- tience in reading, re-reading, discussing, and proofreading every word multiple times, and for encouraging me when I wanted to give up. Without his unwavering support, cooking, and good-natured willingness to pick up household slack, this project could not have been finished. Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations .................................................................................. xi Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Chapter One: Housewife or Shop Girl? Alienation and (Anti-) Romance in Die Liebhaberinnen ................................................................ 8 “Sexuality is to Feminism What Work is to Marxism”: Alienated Sexuality and/as Labor ........................... 10 Limitations to a Marxist/Socialist Feminist Analysis .............. 26 Lacanian Alienation and Metonymy .......................................... 28 “Reading the (Anti-) Romance”: Die Liebhaberinnen and the Romance Novel ..................................................................... 34 Chapter Two: A Jouissance Beyond the Phallus? Lust and Pornography ............................................................................................ 43 An Artistic Anti-Pornography? .................................................. 43 The Misfortunes of Justine and Gerti: Reading Jelinek with Sade ..................................................................................... 49 Female Sexuality and Jouissances ............................................ 63 A Pessimistic Pornography Without Pleasure .......................... 71 Chapter Three: Portrait of the Artist as a (Not-So) Young Pervert: Pianos, Perversion and Sublimation in Die Klavierspielerin ............... 74 The Androgynous Piano: Women’s Piano Playing as Feminine and Masculine ............................................................ 76 Excursus: Clara S. ...................................................................... 82 The Piano and Erika’s Sexual Position ..................................... 85 Sublimation and Perversion: Die Klavierspielerin as Anti-Künstlerroman .................................................................... 91 Notes ........................................................................................................... 101 Introduction ............................................................................... 101 Chapter One .............................................................................. 102 Chapter Two .............................................................................. 106 Chapter Three ........................................................................... 110 Bibliography ............................................................................................... 115 Index ............................................................................................................ 133 Acknowledgements T hey say it takes a village to raise a child. In my case, it took a village to write a dissertation and then turn it into a book. First, I would like to thank Sara Lennox for her unflagging support of this work’s previous life as a dissertation even as the topic evolved into something completely different from what I had originally proposed – and also for constantly challenging me to im- prove the clarity and organization of my work. I would also like to thank the rest of my committee–Susan Cocalis, Ann Ferguson, and Edwin Gentzler–for their support and helpful feedback. When it came time to revise for publication, my editors at Peter Lang were enormously helpful. I am grateful to Margarete Lamb- Faffelberger, editor of the Austrian Culture series for her support and guidance, as well as Jackie Pavlovic for being a wonderful production editor. Without their help, this book would not exist. The Austrian-American Fulbright Commission generously sup- ported my research in Vienna, for which I am enormously grateful. I am also indebted to the following individuals for their personal and professional support during my time in Vienna: Elfriede Jelin- ek, Lonnie Johnson, Helga Hofmann-Weinberger, Werner Hof- mann, Michael Yonan, Leo Riegert, Robert Pichl (University of Vienna) and the late Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler (University of Vi- enna). I also received financial support from the Women’s & Gen- der Studies Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and thank them for that support. I have also benefitted tremendously from the support of a far- flung network of friends, colleagues, and mentors at the institu- tions at which I studied and worked while completing this project: Skyler Arndt-Briggs, Barton Byg, James Cathey, Nancy Patteson, Robert Sullivan, Maria Stehle, Muzafar Qazilbash, Alexandra Merley-Hill, Kyle Frackman, Beret Norman, Dagmar Jaeger, Betheny Moore Roberts, and Jana Evans-Braziel at UMass Am-