Landschaftsgedächtnis und Geschlechterdiskurse in ausgewählten Werken von Elsa Bernstein und Maria Waser
This article analyzes the mutual interpenetrations of different types of cultural memory in literary texts, in particular landscape memory, myth memory, and memory of gender stereotypes. Symbolic drama by Elsa Bernstein (pseudonym Ernst Rosmer, 1866–1949) Mutter Maria Totengedicht in fün...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | ces |
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Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Góry, Literatura, Kultura |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://wuwr.pl/glk/article/view/17589 |
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| Summary: | This article analyzes the mutual interpenetrations of different types of cultural memory in literary texts, in particular landscape memory, myth memory, and memory of gender stereotypes.
Symbolic drama by Elsa Bernstein (pseudonym Ernst Rosmer, 1866–1949) Mutter Maria Totengedicht in fünf Wandlungen (1900) deals with the subject of the supplanting of old folk beliefs by the Christian religion, as well as the violent clash of the male and female worlds, symbolized here by the figures of alpine mythology as literary topoi (hunter and mountain goddess). The end of the drama—a combination of a mythical being after death with a sculpture of the Madonna carved in rock—is usually interpreted as the apotheosis of Christianity and the triumph of a new religion (and thus a new world order) over the pagan world. However, its subversive aspect should be emphasized because, in the cult of the Mother of God, one can find strong reminiscences of the cult of the Great Goddess and other ancient fertility deities. Therefore, old beliefs are not lost forever; they remain part of the cultural heritage and are waiting to be rediscovered.
An original reinterpretation of the stereotyped mountain landscape is proposed by Maria Waser (1878–1939) in her novel Die Geschichte der Anna Waser (1913). Here, the name of the mountain peak Jungfrau becomes a symbol of independence from the expectations of the environment and offers the possibility of identification. For the main character, the most important thing is the desire for self-realization as an artist (painter), which often encounters the reluctance of the environment, especially men jealous of her talent. This rather unusual way of perceiving Jungfrau in the context of building identity is intimate and personal, and at the same time explicitly feminine. |
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| ISSN: | 2084-4107 2957-2495 |