Online Reading Circle: Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann

The Reading Circle is online and a link will be shared ahead of the event.

Ahead of the screening of Malina at the GFT on 16 November, we are delighted to invite you to join an online reading group exploring Ingeborg Bachmann's influential novel, which served as the basis for the film screenplay by Elfriede Jelinek.

'I will tell you a terrible secret: language is punishment. Language must encompass all things and in it all things must again transpire according to guilt and the degree of guilt.' – Ingeborg Bachmann

Nicci Gerard wrote this about Malina: 'In the astonishing desolation and wonder that is Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina, first published in 1971, there is no certain narrative, but there are many, deeply internalised, stories. There is the buried detective story struggling to surface; the story of female subjectivity and trauma, and male violence; of the nightmare of the war that tore her century (Bachmann was born in Austria and was the daughter of a Nazi party member); of the impossibility of love between a man and a woman; of the disintegration of words and meanings. Intended as the first in a three-volume series entitled Death Styles, Malina is above all a “story within the self” – though self is an increasingly unstable concept in this novel in which nothing is fixed, everything is unsafe, and an ill wind blows through the text.'
Join us for an online reading group to discuss this groundbreaking novel, in which we will be covering some of the themes raised by Gerard, as well as the novel’s unique form/structure, its sense of place as well other themes, including humour and utopia. Those attending should read or be planning to read the 2019 edition, translated by Philip Boehm and currently in print, published by Penguin (or the original, out in Suhrkamp). There will be opportunities to hear sections of the book read out in the original German and an interactive part where you will be able to share some of your impressions and discuss responses with the rest of the group.
We will encourage everyone to join us for a special screening of the screen version of Malina (dir. Werner Schroeter, 1992), showing at Glasgow Film Theatre on 16th November 2026. This screening is supported by the Goethe Institut.
This session is in online on Zoom and in English. Hosts are Victoria Wang and Rastko Novaković. It is organised by the Goethe Institute (Glasgow) and Inclinations Book Club. Everyone is welcome, whether you have already read Malina, are currently reading it, or are simply curious to discover the novel ahead of the screening. Please register on Eventbrite
About the hosts:
Victoria, originally from Vienna, trained first as a biologist, is now pursuing a PhD in philosophy of science, and has an abiding love of literature.
Rastko is a filmmaker, writer and curator based in Glasgow. He is the programmer of Inclinations Film and Book Club - a volunteer-run Glasgow group.

The link will be shared ahead of the event.

More information: Events | Goethe-Institut UK