54 pages • 1-hour read
The Wall
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Background
Authorial Context: Marlen Haushofer
Marlen Haushofer was born on April 11th, 1920, in Frauenstein, Austria. She studied German literature and lived as an adult in Steyr, an industrial city, where her husband worked. She published her first novel, A Handful of Life, in 1963. Much of Haushofer’s work stems from her own experiences, both as a child in rural Austria and as a married mother. Her memories of her youth spent in nature feature heavily in her work, with her rural upbringing standing as a contrast to her adult life. The importance of nature is a prominent theme in The Wall. Throughout the novel, the protagonist reflects on how nature changes her view of herself and the world. Not only does she feel free of social constraints and gender norms, but also more free to see the world with fresh eyes.
The protagonist’s sense of freedom in The Wall, despite her severe isolation, stems from a feminist perspective. Haushofer uses her experiences as a married woman and mother to analyze the ways in which society conditioned her to accept the limitations of those roles. In many ways, these experiences contrast with her relative freedom as a child. In The Wall, the protagonist often considers the different external factors that pushed her toward marriage and motherhood. In her isolation, the protagonist realizes that she felt pushed into these roles because everyone around her expected her to fill them.
In her new freedom behind the wall, she feels as though she makes her own decisions for the first time. In this new environment, she feels unburdened by societal expectations and explores her identity in a new way. The protagonist’s self-discovery through her isolation in nature echoes (1854) by Henry David Thoreau, while the idea of a lone human survivor coping with an apocalyptic event also appears in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826).
Genre Context: Eco-Dystopia
The Wall is a work of fiction that can be classified as an eco-dystopia. Eco-dystopias are works that feature a dystopia caused and defined by ecological disaster. Eco-dystopias thus often feature apocalyptic events, “incorporat[ing] features of the post-apocalyptic genre” (Malvestio, Marco. “Theorizing Eco-Dystopia: Science Fiction, the Anthropocene, and the Limits of Catastrophic Imagery.” European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes, 2022). Some notable examples of eco-dystopias include The Drowned World (1962) by J.G. Ballard and (1993) by Octavia E. Butler. Eco-dystopias explore the ways in which people and society react to devastating ecological disasters, transforming the genre into a form of critique of how humans interact with—and dangerously exploit—the natural world. Contemporary eco-dystopias are often inspired by the threat of climate change.
The Wall uses the protagonist’s isolation as a means of exploring anxieties of the author’s present in the mid-20th century. The freezing of the world beyond the wall reflects the fear of mutually assured destruction and nuclear war during the height of the Cold War between the USA and USSR (the Soviet Union). The victims outside of the wall are caught frozen in time, completely unaware of any disaster, like many close to the site of a nuclear explosion. Haushofer therefore uses the disaster of The Wall to explore the ways in which nuclear war may impact the world. The world she creates is unique, and rather than being the primary driver in the plot, the implied nuclear event instead serves as a lingering threat that the protagonist reacts to.
Historical Context: The Cold War and Austria
Though there are few references to the Cold War and nuclear weapons in Haushofer’s The Wall, the conflict’s presence is certainly felt throughout the novel. The Cold War describes the tense conflict between the US and Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II, with the superpowers competing against one another for political influence and ideological supremacy. It is described as a “cold war” because there was no direct military conflict between the two global superpowers, although the powers often engaged in various “proxy wars” involving third parties in other regions, such as Latin America.
While the USA and USSR never engaged in open conflict, the threat of their nuclear weapons kept the world on edge. The notion that if one country used their weapons, the other would as well was often regarded as a kind of deterrent, as it would result in the mutual destruction of both superpowers. Sometimes, however, even the idea of mutually assured destruction alone could not guarantee peace: During the USA’s attempted invasion of Cuba in 1961, known as the “Bay of Pigs Invasion,” Nikita Khrushchev threatened nuclear retaliation if the USA did not abandon their attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro’s communist regime. The invasion attempt marks a particularly dangerous moment in USA-USSR relations, making nuclear warfare seem an even more plausible threat at the time.
The constant threat of a widespread fallout impacting more than just these two powers was palpable across Europe during Haushofer’s life. Living in Austria, on the edge of the USSR, Haushofer and other Austrian citizens were well-acquainted with the conflict. The USSR encompassed Russia and Eastern Europe, while Austria was aligned with the West and the USA, placing the nation firmly in the middle of the conflict. The Wall, published two years after the Bay of Pigs Invasion, reflects this atmosphere of fear of nuclear disaster.
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