Jeannie Ebner
Jeannie Ebner was an influential Austrian writer and artist, born in Australia in 1918. Her early life was marked by family challenges, including the loss of her mother to mental illness and her father's death during a difficult economic period. Bilingual from a young age, she received her education primarily in Vienna, where she studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts before transitioning to painting and design after World War II. Ebner's literary career took off with her acclaimed 1954 novel, *Sie warten auf Antwort*, which is noted for its Kafkaesque themes of powerlessness and the futility of seeking answers. Throughout her career, she published further novels that explored complex narratives, including her autobiographical work set against the backdrop of Austria's tumultuous history. In addition to her writing, Ebner served as the editor of *Literatur und Kritik* for a decade, significantly impacting the Austrian literary scene and nurturing emerging authors. She received numerous accolades for her contributions to literature, including the Austrian State Prize for Literature in 1993. Her diaries, spanning from 1957 to 1993, provide insight into her experiences and thoughts, reflecting her rich, multifaceted life as a writer and cultural figure.
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Jeannie Ebner
Writer
- Born: November 17, 1918
- Birthplace: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Died: March 16, 2004
- Place of death: Vienna, Austria
Biography
Jeannie Ebner was born in Australia in 1918. Her father, Johann, had emigrated from Austria; her mother had to be sent back there because she was mentally ill and needed to be institutionalized. The family returned to Austria in 1920, and Ebner’s father died in 1926. Any money the family had was lost in the Great Depression. Jeannie was always bilingual, though most of her education was received in Vienna, Austria, and included two years at a commercial college. In 1941 she enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna to study sculpture, a period that came to an end in 1945, when her house and family business were destroyed in air raids.
After a year in Salzburg, Ebner returned to Vienna to work as a painter and designer. She began typing for the American forces, and remained working in this capacity until 1949. In 1948 she met Ernst Allenger, though she did not marry him till 1964. Ebner began writing lyric poetry and short stories, and, in 1954, her first novel, Sie warten auf Antwort, was published. It was widely acclaimed and seen as a sign of the rebirth of Austrian literature after World War II. She had to rely on the income from translation work until 1968. That year, she was appointed editor of Literatur und Kritik, a literary magazine that developed an international reputation under her ten-year editorship. In 1974 she became a member of the Lower Austrian Cultural Senate, and she remained in her position until 1990; she was immensely influential in helping younger writers. Her diaries from 1957 to 1993 are now housed in the Vienna City Library and give some idea of both the scope of her activities and her ideas. Her early fiction has been categorized as in the tradition of Franz Kafka: It is mythological, fantastic, surreal, and creates a world that works according to its own bizarre rules. But Ebner’s books always have a very self-conscious, in-control narrator. Sie warten auf Antwort centers on the theme of powerlessness: Characters ask questions until they realize the futility of doing so. When they come upon this realization, they die.
Ebner’s second novel, Die Wildnis früher Sommer (1958) has a young girl as its heroine; the girl is unable to distinguish between dream, fantasy and reality. Her third novel is more autobiographical. Figuren in Schwarz und weisz is set in the Vienna of 1925 to 1955 and analyses the rise of the Nazis and the annexation of Austria to Germany. The heroine is finally shocked by the revelation of the concentration camps and decides to become a writer. In 1987 Ebner published an autobiography in which she discusses the difficulties of turning life experiences into fiction. Further fiction appeared in 1981 with Drei Flötentöne, three stories about three women, or perhaps just one woman, and the novella Akläon: Novelle (1983) about an older woman observing herself falling in love and turning the experience into literature. Ebner received a number of awards, including a First Class Honors Award for Science and Art in 1979 and the Austrian State Prize for Literature in 1993.