Diss.--Université de Louvain, 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 253-261.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-231). Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-231). Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Diese Magisterarbeit ist dem bis heute sehr komplexen Geschlechterverhältnis gewidmet. Dieses Verhältnis werde ich analysieren, indem ich das literarische Motiv des Geschlechtertausches ausarbeite. Dabei werde ich seine kulturhistorische Entwicklung berücksichtigen. Das Thema wird interdisziplinär behandelt und zwar mithilfe anthropologischer, psychoanalytischer, literaturwissenschaftlicher sowie ideengeschichtlicher Perspektiven und Methoden – all dies um seine Komplexität zu erfassen. Zunächst wird die menschliche Geschlechtsidentität als ein naturbedingtes Phänomen einerseits und als ein kulturelles Konstrukt andererseits diskutiert. Die Psychoanalyse wird den feministischen Theorien entgegen gestellt, woraufhin sie sich als Versuch der Legitimierung der gesellschaftlichen Ordnung erweist. Die anschließende Analyse der kulturellen Repräsentationsformen des Weiblichen wird es deutlich machen, wie schwer es ist, die über mehrere Jahrhunderte tradierten Weiblichkeitsbilder zu „neutralisieren“. Die literarische Grundlage für die Untersuchung der Geschlechterbeziehungen verschaffen die drei „Geschichten über die Umwandlung der Verhältnisse“ (1980). In allen Texten vollzieht sich ein Geschlechtswandel: die Protagonistinnen schlüpfen in männliche Körper ein und auf einmal erfahren sie die Welt aus der bisher unbekannten Perspektive. Dabei empfindet jede von denen die neue Situation anders und doch so ähnlich. Anhand von Sarah Kirschs „Blitz aus dem heiterm Himmel“, Irmtraud Morgners „Gute Botschaft der Valeska in 73 Strophen“ und Christa Wolfs „Selbstversuch. Traktat zu einem Protokoll“ werden die regressiven patriarchalischen Strukturen aufgedeckt, in denen der Frau eine minderwertige Positionierung in einer Gesellschaft zugeschrieben wird. Da sich die Beziehungen zwischen Männern und Frauen in den gesellschaftlichen Machtverhältnissen widerspiegeln, werden die Geschichten im Kontext der sozialistischen Wirklichkeit der DDR in den 1970er Jahre analysiert. Aus diesen Untersuchungen ergeben sich klare Erkenntnisse: die Realität des „emanzipierten“ DDR-Staates hatte mit dem marxistischen Traum nichts zu tun. Diese in den Erzählungen widerspiegelte historisch-politische Wirklichkeit stellte die propagandistische Gleichberechtigung der Frauen in Frage. Die Sozialpolitik wird als eine der modernen männlichen Legitimationsstrategien für die Erhaltung der patriarchalischen Ordnung entschleiert. Damit die Frau nicht mehr über den Mann definiert wird, müsste eine grundlegende Veränderung der gesellschaftlichen Geschlechtsvorstellungen erfolgen. Alle in dieser Arbeit untersuchten Geschlechtertauschgeschichten beinhalten diverse Utopie-Entwürfe, die jedoch keine perfekte Ordnung darstellen. Ganz im Gegenteil – das sind eher negative Utopien, die fundamentale Kritik an der Ungleichheit der gesellschaftlichen Positionierung der Geschlechter zum Ziel haben. Christa Wolf, Irmtraud Morgner und Sarah Kirsch thematisierten in ihren Erzählungen die Problematik der Geschlechterverhältnisse in der DDR der 1970er Jahre und machten auf die Dringlichkeit des weiblichen Widerstandes aufmerksam. Gleichzeitig soll dieser literarische Diskurs die eigentliche Möglichkeit der Veränderung des gesellschaftlichen Status der Frauen aufzeigen. Daher sind diese imaginierten Geschlechtertauschgeschichten als Manifeste für wahre Gleichstellung der Frauen zu lesen. / The present master’s dissertation focuses on the complex topic of sex and gender relations. The analysis is based on a literary motif of a sex change, taking into account its historical dimension as well as its cultural heritage. In order to capture the complexity of the topic, it will be treated interdisciplinarily. This means that the variety of methods and perspectives will be considered, including anthropological approach, psychoanalysis, literary, historical and ideological theories. To begin with, gender identity will be discussed as a natural phenomenon on the one hand and as a cultural construction on the other hand. The psychoanalysis will be discussed as an attempt of legitimization of societal order and confronted with modern feminist thought. Through the subsequent analysis of the cultural forms of feminine representation it will become obvious how difficult it is to dismantle the predominant images of feminity, which have evolved over many centuries. The three stories published in a volume “Geschlechtertausch” (“Sex Change”, 1980) will provide the literary basis for the interrogation of gender roles and relations. There is a sex change motif in every single story: all main female characters miraculously change from a woman to a man and experience the world from a new male perspective. Each protagonist perceives the situation differently and yet so similar. The analysis of “Bolt from the Blue” by Sarah Kirsch, “Gospel of Valeska” by Irmtraud Morgner and “Self-Experiment: Appendix to a Report” by Christa Wolf will reveal the regressive patriarchal structures in which women are usually given an inferior position. The common relations between men and women reflect the distribution of social power between the sexes. Therefore, all three stories shall be re-read in the context of the socialist realism in East Germany (GDR) in 1970s. The conclusions derived from these examinations are clear: the reality in the “emancipated” GDR state had absolutely nothing to do with the Marxist utopian vision. In their stories, all three authors questioned the socialist propaganda of pseudo gender equality. The GDR social policy will be unveiled as one of the modern male legitimization strategies with the sole purpose of preserving the rigid patriarchal order. A redefinition and revision of the traditional understanding of the genders appear necessary, if a woman shall no longer be defined by a man. In addition, the analyzed sex change stories contain diverse utopian visions, which however do not portray a perfect social order. On the contrary, they depict rather negative utopias that aim at revealing and emphasizing the unjustified unequal positioning of both sexes within the society. Christa Wolf, Irmtraud Morgner and Sarah Kirsch have made a successful attempt to explore the problematic nature of gender relations in the GDR in 1970s. This literary discourse represents a radical interrogation of gender roles and relations, but it also shows the possibility and necessity of changing the status of women. Taken together, those three imaginary sex change tales should be read as manifestos for true equality of women.

Located at the intersection of literary, journalistic, and socio-historical discourses, “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” looks at diaristic texts in post-war German literature through the lens of news reporting and mass media. Since the 1970s, diaristic texts in German emerged across genres in the works of canonical authors. These works are widely read as subjective texts and linked to their authors’ supposedly diaristic interest in introspection and self-expression. However, these texts’ orientation towards the outside world and their interest in the temporality and scene of writing does not fit into this existing narrative. This dissertation looks at four decades worth of journal texts by Peter Handke, Sarah Kirsch, Jürgen Becker, and Rainald Goetz. Considering these texts between the poles of diary and news(papers), “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” argues that the modes of writing that emerged must be read as a new genre. Looking at novels, poetry, prose, blogs, and epics, “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” analyses writing as the site of narrative experiments that resulted in new attempts to define literary categories. “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” establishes links between the accelerating and alienating effects of mass media and the narratological impact of journalistic reporting on literary writing. The project takes reporting and the report as its methodological cornerstones and looks at the journal’s conception of scene, time, image, narrative, and writing through the lens of contemporary literary theory. My project situates itself within the temporal turn and contributes to recent studies on literature and time. The three chapters of this dissertation trace different modes of journal writing emerging since the early 1970s. Chapter I investigates how the texts of Jürgen Becker focus on the temporality of short-term memory and its implications for a new definition of plot. Chapter II traces journal writing in Sarah Kirsch’s poetry and prose and the way in which it focalizes settings of spatio-temporal liminality. Chapter III looks at the works of Peter Handke and their focus on the temporal simultaneity of writing and its relation to the surrounding scene. My conclusion revisits these modes through the lens of 2000s journal writing in the works of Rainald Goetz. “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” suggests that these texts’ very rigid repudiation of mass media and journalistic reporting lies at odds with the extraordinary phenomenological influence both have on the conceptions of writing contained in them. This dissertation, therefore, intervenes in a literary history of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s by challenging common center/periphery binaries that imply an author’s supposed degree of (non)involvement with the modern world. It expands existing theories on diaristic writing, looking at journal writing as a specific genre that transcends existing categories. “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” concludes that a broad range of supposedly diaristic texts from the German post-war era must be reconceived with regards to their genre status. Through its focus on writing, this dissertation ultimately aims at establishing journal writing as a new theory of genre.

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Since earliest times death has been an important and always actual theme in the arts. The point of departure of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the ”discourse of and about death” in the poems of three women poets, namely Elisabeth Eybers, Olga Kirsch and Eveleen Castelyn. Various aspects of death thematics are considered and, from a formal perspective, the presence and absence of traditional forms concerning death, such as the ”obituary poem”, the ”elegy”, the ”dirge” and the ”threnody” are investigated. The research plan and the development of the study are dealt with in chapter one. The problem formulation and theoretical approaches for this study are given special attention. In chapter two the death theme in literature throughout the centuries, and specifically in poetry, is relevant. Death thematics occurring in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese, American, Russian, German, French and Spanish literatures are examined. Philosophical and Christian viewpoints concerning death are also investigated. The portrayal of death in the poetry of Elisabeth Eybers is the topic in chapter three. Her oeuvre is devided into four periods. The collections from Belydenis in die skemering up to Rymdwang are only summarily referred to, since this section has already been dealt with in my MA dissertation (Schutte, 1988). The following six volumes are discussed in detail concerning her religious views and the portrayal of death by way of various subthemes and stances. Chapter four is dedicated to the poetry of Olga Kirsch and in chapter five to that of Eveleen Castelyn. In chapter six a comparison is drawn between the three poets regarding their shared death thematics, similarities and differences in their mode of betrayal and their views on the afterlife. During her oeuvre Eybers adopts an agnostic view, Kirsch embraces the Jewish faith and Castelyn holds a Christian point of view throughout her oeuvre. At the end of the study a summary and findings are given and the conclusion, that the three poets increasingly become preoccupied with death, is reached. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / (D. Litt. et Phil. Afrikaans))

Since earliest times death has been an important and always actual theme in the arts. The point of departure of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the ”discourse of and about death” in the poems of three women poets, namely Elisabeth Eybers, Olga Kirsch and Eveleen Castelyn. Various aspects of death thematics are considered and, from a formal perspective, the presence and absence of traditional forms concerning death, such as the ”obituary poem”, the ”elegy”, the ”dirge” and the ”threnody” are investigated. The research plan and the development of the study are dealt with in chapter one. The problem formulation and theoretical approaches for this study are given special attention. In chapter two the death theme in literature throughout the centuries, and specifically in poetry, is relevant. Death thematics occurring in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese, American, Russian, German, French and Spanish literatures are examined. Philosophical and Christian viewpoints concerning death are also investigated. The portrayal of death in the poetry of Elisabeth Eybers is the topic in chapter three. Her oeuvre is devided into four periods. The collections from Belydenis in die skemering up to Rymdwang are only summarily referred to, since this section has already been dealt with in my MA dissertation (Schutte, 1988). The following six volumes are discussed in detail concerning her religious views and the portrayal of death by way of various subthemes and stances. Chapter four is dedicated to the poetry of Olga Kirsch and in chapter five to that of Eveleen Castelyn. In chapter six a comparison is drawn between the three poets regarding their shared death thematics, similarities and differences in their mode of betrayal and their views on the afterlife. During her oeuvre Eybers adopts an agnostic view, Kirsch embraces the Jewish faith and Castelyn holds a Christian point of view throughout her oeuvre. At the end of the study a summary and findings are given and the conclusion, that the three poets increasingly become preoccupied with death, is reached. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / (D. Litt. et Phil. Afrikaans))