“We can easily say (and claim) that a person who, for example, dances extraordinarily and consistently, probably does research in a similar way, and thus the one who does research, and thus does a lot of research consistently, would be a perfectly passable ball-goer. We observe a ball-goer for a long time in the most exact way and gradually understand what her relationship to research is like, just as when we observe a person doing research for a long time, we can gradually imagine what kind of ball-goer she is. So, observe a person at a ball for a long time and then observe her doing research; conversely, observe a person doing research for a long time and then observe her dancing. Nothing more revealing when we watch a ball-goer do research, as nothing more revealing when we watch a research colleague do ball-goer. What a sloppy ball-goer, we often think, and often: how sloppy is this colleague’s research, and soon we come to the conclusion that this person dances just like she researches, that she researches just like she dances.”

Barbi Marković, born in Belgrade in 1980, studied German literature and has lived in Vienna since 2006. In 2009, Markovic caused quite a row with the ThomasBernhardRemix novel “Going Out.” In 2016, the novel “Superheldinnen” was published, which was performed at the Vienna Volkstheater in 2018. In 2017, Barbi Markovic read at the Bachmann Prize. Most recently published by Residenz Verlag: “Die verschissene Zeit” (2021).