Christine Lavant
Christine Lavant (born Christine Thonhauser, mar. Christine Habernig; 4 July 1915 – 7 June 1973) was an Austrian poet and novelist.
Life
Lavant was born in the hamlet of Großedling (today part of
The newborn had
Lavant had to stay at her parents' home and occupied herself with painting, writing, reading, and needleworks. A protracted middle ear infection left a single-sided hearing impairment. In the early 1930s, she came down with a major depression, but also focused on painting and writing and offered a first novel to a Graz publishing house. The manuscript was finally rejected in 1932, whereafter Lavant completely destroyed her writing and in 1935 attended the Klagenfurt sanatorium. Her financial condition worsened after her parents had died in quick succession in 1937 and 1938. Supported by her knitting and subsidised by her siblings, she married the painter and former landowner Josef Habernig, about 35 years her senior.
After World War II, Lavant again began to compose lyric poetry, which eventually gained some attention by the Austrian literary scene. A first volume was released by a Stuttgart publisher who recommended her to prose, whereafter she came out with the novella Das Kind (The Child) in the same year. She became publicly known after an appearance at a 1950 reading in Sankt Veit. Lavant relocated to her hometown Wolfsberg, where she lived in reclusion for the rest of her life. When in 1964 her husband died after a stroke, she had a breakdown in health and again had to undergo hospital treatment. Lavant died, aged 57, in Wolfsberg.
Her poems have been described as "almost mystically religious" and "archaic". Rilke[1] and Christianity[2] are seen as influences on her work.
Awards
- 1954 Georg Trakl Prize
- 1964 Anton Wildgans Prize
- 1964 Georg Trakl Prize
- 1970 Grand Austrian State Prize for literature