o < X LJJ z z o Io X Thirty a speaking surprising years countries ago, revival the in crime of all Europe. the novel Germanbegan What a surprising revival inall theGermanspeakingcountries of Europe.What started as theregional crime story inGermany and spreadtoAustria inrecent yearshasheralded therebirth ofa sentimental localgenre knownas theHeimatroman (homeland novel). In Austria, nearly everysecondnovelcan be advertised as a crime novel.Yettherulesofthe genreareoften ambitiously broken, varied, or satirized. Austrian readers lovethecombination ofcrime, localcolor, anda detailed representationof thesocialsituation. Thissynthesis of elements isn'tnew,butafter theSecondWorld Warandtenyears ofoccupation, Austria needed time torediscover itsownliterary roots and to exploitthetypical Austrian gift oftreating deathartistically. Still, Austria's fascination with crime fiction has a longhistory. In AugusteGroner (18501929 ),Austriabrought forth one of thefirst internationally knownwomencrimewriters. Groner, the"mother" ofall Austrian women crimewriters, began to writecrimestories around1890andinvented thefigure Josef Miiller ,thefirst serialpolicedetective in German crimeliterature. Groner's novelswere translated ,and Josef Miiller becameinternationally famous, buttheFirst WorldWarplungedthe author intoobscurity. Ironically, Groner's contributions tocrime fiction havebeenmuch more widely acknowledged intheUnited States than in Europe.In 1992theAmerican Germanist MaryTannert wrotea doctoral dissertation on Groner that remains theonlyin-depth study in anylanguage ofGroner's crime fiction. Today, there isanorganization for Austrian writers ofcrime fiction (www.krimiautoren.at), and,oftheseventy-five member authors, fortythree arewomen!Butsincemostreviews and literary supplements in manypartsofEurope stillignore themassofwomenwriters, I have MayJune 201 1i13 Titles Available inEnglish Augusta Groner, The Case of the Registered Letter, tr. Grace Isabel Colbron (Kessinger 2004) Elfriede Jelinek, The Piano Teacher ANovel, tr. Joachim Neugroschel (Grove Press, 2009) decidedto report on themostinteresting and promising womencrimewriters in Austria thosewhohavealreadyprovedthequality of their workandareknown inallthree Germanspeaking countries. In the1970s, onlyonewomanwas ableto succeedintheAustrian market. HelgaAnderle has written morethan six hundredshortcrime storiesfor German and Austrian newspapersand journalsand servedas a pathfinder forthosejust beginning tolearn therules ofthegenre.Anderle creates intelligent plots,her humor isjet-black, andher Viennesemorbidity colors thescenery. Evenwhenthe reader laughsoutloud,her message is oftencruelly somber. Sheis a master of theshort form and knows how to presenta showdowninjusta fewwords. As an expert networker, in thelate 1990sshe helped me and Maria Benedickt founda groupof womencrimewriters that becametheAustrian cellofSisters in Crime. Benedickt (b. 1958)had been discovered by thefamousGerman publishing houseFischer Verlag for heroutstanding novelsaboutfemale outcasts, odd youngwomencharacterized by determination and specialpointsofviewwho wereeither indanger themselves orinterrupted a killer atwork. Even in its postwarreincarnation, there is a cleardifference between thecrimefiction ofGermany and Austria. You don'tfindthe typicaltrioof victim-culprit-detective in an Austrian story. The readerfollowseither the criminal and/ora witness, and interest in the deedis muchdeeperthana concern forarrest andpunishment. Forthisreason, quitea lotof Austrian crimenovels,especially thosewrittenbywomen , arenottypical examples ofthe genre - whichmakesit hardto market them correctly, sinceAustrian literature ingeneral is full ofcorpses andviolence. Onlyduring recent years havesomeofthe younger writers attempted towrite crime fiction "bytherules"inorder tobuildupa realcrime section. Suddenly, there wereso manypromising young women writing crime fiction that the1990s bloomed likea well-prepared garden. With these authors, newheroines appeared, mostly reporterswhoserved as amateur detectives orpublic officials / civilservants withan unexpected variety of qualities. Fromtheverybeginning, thesewriters triedto produce morethana simple whodunit, combining psychology , socialissues,and political contexts with black humorand thedespairof unhappylove. As tightly woven asthick braids, these novels quicklysucceeded notonlyin Austria butin Germany, too.In theearly 1980s,emancipatory feminismturnedsome stories into texts more preachy than suspenseful, butsoonAustrians developed a narrative variety thattranscends the meremurder ofvillainous men by oppressedheroines .Viennese blackhumor in particular lendscolorto Austrian crime fiction andhelpsavoidsa blackand -white impression. ThebooksofElfriede Semrau(1922-2004) deliver a wonderful mixture ofsplendid ideas, feminist discourses,social minefields, local humor, and realsuspense.Her detectives are coffeehouse waiter Leopoldandhiswife, Gretel Huber, a self-confident localgossip andproduce seller. Semrau, whowas a teacher ofreligion, knewjust how to presentthe hypocrisy of Austrian morality, and understood howawful questions ofconscience canbesolved.Herstyle iscruelly funny andpainfully vicious. Moreelegant butsimilar inheraims, ChristineGran (b. 1952)developsherplotsaround serialfigure AnnaMarx,invented in 1986and immediately madeintoa television series. Asa reporter, Annaisconfronted with a widevariety ofsocially critical topics. Shealso has a lotof personal problems andbearsnoresemblance to most people'sideaofa heroine. Granistalented enough toavoidcliches, andherstyle hasdevelopedintoa very elegant andsubtle instrument. EvenwhenEvaRossmann (b.1962) chooses thewell-known constellation ofdetective and Quite a lot of Austrian crime novels, especially those written by women, are not typical examples of the genre - which makes it hard to market them correctly, since Austrian literature in general is full of corpses and violence. 14 1 World Literature Today helper, herinterpretation oftheHolmes /Watson constellation is original: Bosniancleaning ladyVesnaKrajner is canny, courageous, and morepractical thanheremployer, MiraValensky ,a lifestyle journalist. Although she is a refugee with nomoney, Vesna'spridedemands a certain formality withherboss. Rossmann develops conventional plots,but her handling of the questionof guilt is highly differentiated nosurprise for thosewho knowthat Rossmann was a constitutional jurist and a voiceforsocialreform before becoming anexcellent professional cook. Lisa Lercher debuted inthelate1990swithher civilservant AnnaPosch, whose bestfriend Mona Sommeris- surprise - a journalist and single mother (whichmakesheruniquein thecircle of Austrian crimefiction). The novelsshine becauseofLercher's veryindividual tone.Her voiceis alwaysthatofa first-person narrator speaking in thepresent, whichcanbe a dangerouscombination , butsheskirts all thecliffs impressively. Themystery is solvedin all her stories and novels(onewas justmadeintoan impressively sensitive film), buta certain emotionalflatness and an echoofrealhorror stay with thereader. [Editorial note: Toreadherstory inthis issue,seepage10.] In1992 Edith Kneifl (b.1954), whoworks asa psychoanalyst inVienna, became the first woman towintheFriedrich Glauser Prizefor bestGermancrime novel ofthe year. Herperpetrators are average peoplewho,under pressure, cross moral borders. Somefigures display very morbid qualitiesandarea pleasure tofollow. Herheroine, Joe Bellini, whooccasionally discovers crimes and/ or helps the police, isa feminist analyst with a weaknessfor thewrong guys.In a classical Austrian manner, Kneifl mixes tenses, moving from pastto present ina unique voicethat the reader immediately becomes fond of. InAustrian crime fiction written bywomen, there is onlyonepoliceofficer representing the classic crime novel, thework that follows allthe "rules''of thegenre - MariaKouba,theprotagonist offive booksbySabinaNaber(b.1965). Naberdevelopsa hotmixture ofsexandcrime andtakes thereader for a wildridethrough the Viennese mentality. Herblackhumorlightens someofthehard-boiled scenes.Fastdialogue leads directly intoswampsofcorruption, lost history, anddirty money. Something that unifies allAustrian women crimenovelistsis theirjoy in playingwith Christine Gran Edith Kneifl Susanne Ayoub language, usingall theshadesofambiguity it offers. Some of themalso writeand publish poetry, likeSusanne Ayoub, whosetshercrime novelsin the earlytwentieth century; some writetheater playsor areactresses, likeNora Miedler, whosefirst crime novelwontheVienneseLeoPerutz Prize, andwhosecrime settings call to mindan intimate theater set.Another writer working intheater andfilm isAmaryllis Sommerer, whowrote a frightening novelabout a stalker andhisvictim. Austrian humor colorsall thesecrime storiesin a specialway,turning thecharacters intoeccentrics, butnevercaricatures. Theyfeaturea typically Viennese humor inthefaceof deathand a feminist understanding without a didactic tone.Although thislittle country hasa smallpublishing market and Austrian writers dependon themoresizableGermanmarket, local differences are stilltakenseriously and cultivated. WeViennese cannot denyourclassicalroots : Schnitzler, Kafka, Horvath, Bernhard, andHandke,eventhedramasofNobelPrizewinnerElfriede Jelinek. The powerful depictions ofviolence, killing, andbetrayal influence thecrime writing ofourbestauthors. Theclassic crime novelisnotaswellknown oras strong in Austria byinternational standards, butAustria coulddefinitely be thebreeding ground foran outstanding womancrime novelist tocome. Beatrix Kramlovsky is anAustrian artist, writer, literary reviewer, and writing instructor. She isthe author of many essays, novels, and crime stories, several of which have been translated in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Two of her crime stories have been nominated for the Friedrich Glauser Prize for best short crime fiction. Bisamberg /Vienna z o z X o < oc < LO z o !< oc hLO 13 MayJune 201 1115 ...
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Beatrix Kramlovsky (2011) studied this question.