Obscene Fantasies: Elfriede Jelinek’s Generic Perversions

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This book examines Elfriede Jelinek’s investigation of Austria’s and Western Europe’s obscene fantasies through her perversion of generic forms in three of her best-known texts (Die Liebhaberinnen, Lust, and Die Klavierspielerin). Each chapter investigates a central psychoanalytic concept (alienation, jouissance, perversion, and sublimation) and reads a Jelinek text in relation to the genre that it is perverting, exposing the obscene fantasies that lie at its heart. This book argues that the disruption of genres is one of Jelinek’s most significant literary contributions, with her works functioning to create a negative aesthetics as opposed to a positive reworking of generic forms.