Frischmuth, Barbara

(1941–)

   Known for her novels, translations, radio plays, and even children’s literature, Frischmuth is well within the tradition of highly versatile Austrian writers. Unlike many contemporary Austrian novelists in the second half of the 20th century, she has never altogether positioned herself as an outsider in Austrian society and its history. A student of Eastern cultures, particularly their mystic and literary features, she has devoted much attention to the problems of cultural diversity in Austria, particularly as it applies to Turks. Kai und die Liebe zu den Modellen (Kai and the Love of Models, 1979) shows the problems of approaching the alien “Other” through the fictionalized eyes of a Turkish worker. Frischmuth’s 1998 novel Das Verschwinden des Schattens in der Sonne (The Shadow Disappears in the Sun) deals with the efforts of an Austrian to approach the Islamic-Turkish “Other” and the somewhat compromised, though not wholly negative, results.

   See also Literature.