Beyond Plot: Capturing the Minutiae of Daily Life. Narrativity between Lyric Enactment and Material Writing in Friederike Mayröcker’s Proems

Abstract

This article examines Friederike Mayröcker’s late proems as a space in which narrativity is reconfigured at its minimal threshold. At the intersection of post-classical narratology and contemporary lyric theory, the proem – a portemanteau from the French proême, blending prose and poème – does not merely transgress generic boundaries but fundamentally challenges key narratorical categories such as sequentiality, eventfulness, and coherent diegesis. Through close readings of Mayröcker’s works from études (2013) to da ich morgens und moosgrün. Ans Fenster trete (2020), the article argues that her writing replaces plot-driven organisation with an associative composition grounded in perception, inscription, and the material conditions of writing. Dated entries, fragmented syntax, and typographic variation foreground the immediacy of textual production, thereby shifting emphasis from representation to performative enactment. The proem thus emerges as a form capable of capturing the minutiae of everyday life while simultaneously expanding the conceptual scope of both narrative theory and lyric studies.