Antike und andere Kosmogonien, moderne Naturauffassung und die Klimakrise: Zu Elfriede Jelineks Bühnenstück Luft

The article analyzes the processing of ancient sources as well as the central philosophical references in Jelinek's theater texts Luft and Asche . In addition to spatial and temporal structures in the text, the aspects of "border," "destruction of nature," and "climate catastrophe" are also discussed in detail. The spectrum ranges from the natural philosophy of the pre-Socratics to the climate protests of "Fridays for Future." One focus is the examination of the "Zug-Gleichnis" in the text, in which the ancient cosmogonies are amalgamated with contemporary technical fantasies of omnipotence. The oscillation between nature as the elixir of life and the destruction of the environment in the text is illustrated by the eponymous "air." The concluding analysis of Asche describes the text as a "requiem" for the destroyed earth and Jelinek's deceased husband, Gottfried Hüngsberg.