A Portrait of a Woman with a Crisis of Culture in the Background: Marlene Streeruwitz Entfernung. (2006) and Inga Iwasiów Na krótko (2012)

Abstract

This paper is a comparative analysis of two contemporary novels—by the Polish author Inga Iwasiów Na krótko and the Austrian writer Marlene Streeruwitz Enfernung. A reflection that both novels have in common is a diagnosis of the condition of contemporary womanhood in relation to current social and cultural transformation. In the world of more and more dynamic technologisation, digitalisation, bureaucratisation and increasing significance of practical specialist knowledge, qualifications encouraged by humanities, such as moral and aesthetic sensitivity, ability to perceptively interpret and evaluate the reality, become considerably less important. As a result of the rights achieved in the course of the 20^th century emancipation movement women gained free access to culture and universities. Nowadays, they face a crisis of the above mentioned areas, which forces them to redefine themselves.