Words of a Defiant Woman: Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer at 90

Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer’s writing asks readers to surrender themselves to the text, but never blindly. The Viennese poet and novelist turns 90 on August 31, celebrated for a body of work shaped by austere self-reflection.

Kerschbaumer not only formulated the “Female Name of Resistance,” but also created literature that gives poetic force to the risk and logic of emancipation. Her first novel, “The Swimmer,” appeared in 1976.

Her prose and poetry carry a nervous undercurrent. Readers are advised not to plunge headlong into a Kerschbaumer text, but to let themselves be carried by its movement and to hold on to the knowledge embedded in it.

For Kerschbaumer, learning is not literary baggage. It is a voluntary gift and a sign of the remarkable scholarship associated with an author portrayed as a determined loner. Her work therefore demands a form of trust that remains alert to the high standards she sets for anyone willing to follow it.