Death and the Maiden

Author: (Austrian) Jelinek / Wei Yuqing / Wang Binbin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Death and the Maiden is a theatrical work, but it is a play without traditional dramatic conflicts. There are only dialogues or monologues, plus a bit of extremely simple action and scenery. The six women in the work speak without restraint, directly, and quite modernly, about all serious philosophical propositions: existence, truth, lies, thought, reason, eternity, beauty, death, of course, and also love and sex. Death and the Maiden is a theatrical work, but it is a play without traditional dramatic conflicts. There are only dialogues or monologues, plus a bit of extremely simple action and scenery. The work is divided into five parts: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rosalind, Jackie, and The Wall—in fact, Hell's Queen can also be added as a postscript. These six women speak without restraint, directly, and quite modernly, about all serious philosophical propositions: existence, truth, lies, thought, reason, eternity, beauty, death, of course, and also love and sex. The author wants to tell the readers that they are pursued, celebrated, but they have no place to be pursued or celebrated, no additional value worth imitating or expecting.