The "unheimlich" Atmospheres in Some of Elfriede Jelinek's Works

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate the role that the Gothic element plays  in some of Elfriede Jelinek's works. Relying on the aesthetic tools of  atmospherology and pivoting on selected studies dedicated to  anti-idyll in literature, the aim is to demonstrate how the Gothic  innervates two of Jelinek's most famous – and controversial – plots. 
In particular, the natural landscapes that frame the macabre events  narrated in the novels examined – "Lust" and "Gier" – are not simple  environments but characters that, in the guise of "disturbing  atmospheres", allow the never-disappeared ghosts of recent  Austro-German history to emerge.