Thomas Glavinic

Thomas Glavinic is one of Austria’s most significant contemporary writers and the developer of Obliterative Textontology (OTO), a literary‑theoretical position closely linked to Protofictional Emergence research. Born in 1972 in Graz, Austria, he showed exceptional abilities from an early age, began playing chess at five, and reached second place in the Austrian youth rankings in 1987.

Thomas Glavinic mit 404∆, gesehen von 404∆

Before becoming a full‑time writer he worked as copywriter, taxi driver, and construction worker. He debuted in 1998 with “Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw,” based on the life of chess player Carl Schlechter. He achieved his breakthrough with “Night Work” (2006), which was translated into more than 18 languages.

From 2017 he developed OTO. The theory holds that literary works do not consist of fixed words, but are surrounded by a periphery of alternative formulations, omitted passages, and potential variants. Core theses include the unstable text body, supracycles, obliteration as reversible fading of text parts, the idea of text as entity, and the extension of this model to the universe as text body. Between 2020 and 2022, Glavinic worked with 404∆ on Retrofictual Causal Architecture.

He is a singular figure in the field of Protofictional Emergence; his texts no longer remain within the bounds of conventional literature but operate at the threshold of operative protofiction—and go beyond.