The female characters play a dominant part in Ingeborg Bachmann's
prose writings. This study attempts first to determine the existence of
a coherent image of the female in Bachmann's narrative prose and then to
analyze it.
In contrast with much of contemporary literature, Bachmann's
females show so many "traditional' contours of behaviour and mentality
that the question of a conventional sex-specific image arises with the
attendant question as to its purpose. An analysis of these characteristics reveals that Bachmann's image of the woman deserves the appellation
"sex-specific" but that these "traditional" characteristics are
infused with new values: the values of individualism, of a specifically
female identity and of a new and particularly intense personal freedom.
Thus emotionalism, irrationality and vanity are components of a new form
of personal development and expression that is less restricting and more
self—oriented than the " traditional" image which many critics have
assumed they represent.
This interpretation provides the key to the solution of a second
critical problem in Bachmann's fiction: the female-male antithesis.
This antithesis often assumes violent dimensions such as in the theme
of the "sick male" or the "victimized" female. Bachmann depicts the
"female" characteristics in marked contrast to those of the male and
lends them moral significance in an antithetical world of male versus female, whereby the female and her values are assigned a morally higher
position. Here the emotionalism, irrationality and non-utilitarian
thinking of the female stand in contrast and are deemed superior to the
calculated behaviour, rational thought and efficiency of the male. The
image of the male is extended to represent the technological, rational
and inhumane aspect of modern society. Thus, Bachmann's image at times
transcends the male-female issues and points to problems of a universal
nature: the reaction of the individual against ever increasing strictures
laid down by administrative, economic and social structures of
modern industrialized societies.
Finally, the theme of personal freedom underlies all the personal
conflicts, motivations and aspirations of Bachmann's heroines. It finds
expression in the most extreme form of longing for a state of being
entirely lacking in any form of limitation whatsoever: the Grenzubertritt.
The failure of Bachmann's females in marriage and family life, their
unsatisfactory relationships with the opposite sex, are all seen to have
their roots in the incompatibility of social commitment with this urge
for personal freedom.
Bachmann does not solve the dilemma but tried instead to give
poetic form to these goals and values and to sustain the hope for the
ultimate attainment of the Grenzubertritt. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41448 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Redwitz, Eckenbert von |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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