The Animalistic Genre in the Works of Barbara Frischmuth

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider the originality of the art world of the contemporary Austrian writer Barbara Frischmuth who created in the novel Mistress of the Animals a unique "animalistic context". Frischmuth explores human nature through the images of the animal world, in connection with which the author of the article adheres to the term "human-animal studies". "Human-animal studies" in the works of the writer have a mythological nature, with the help of which Frischmuth illustrates the modern world. The relevance of the study is dictated by the inadequate exploration in homeland literary studies of the Austrian writer B. Frischmuth. Hence, considering the work of the Austrian writer in this context, this research is an attempt to pastose  the generalised characteristic of "animalier art". The undertaken study considers the understudied topical problems of modernity, given the literary experience of Barbara Frischmuth. In the animal work Frishmuths"anthropological" and "zoological" are transformed in a specific synthesis; this duality characterises animal characters in her works, and would become a hallmark of her work.