The intertextual poetics in Elfriede Jelinek's debut novel "We Are Decoys, Baby!" (1970) is examined against the backdrop of national and international avant-garde movements at the end of the 1960s. Personnel, textual, and formal references are made by Jelinek to the Vienna Group as well as to Beat, Pop, and Underground in both literary and musical domains. The experimental techniques following the Vienna Group underpin the entire novel and permeate the methods and materials through which Jelinek engages with international avant-garde movements. The reference areas of Beat, Pop, Underground, and 'popular readings' (magazines, pulp novels, girls' books) are explored in detail and for the first time based on a thorough understanding of the material used.