Der ‘weibliche Blick’ auf die Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts: Die Erinnerungsromane „Engste Heimat“ von Erica Pedretti und „Nichts ist Wie“ von Zsuzsanna Gahse

• Authors: Dorota Sośnicka

Title variants

EN

A ‘feminine look’ at the history of the 20th century: the novels “Engste Heimat” by Erica Pedretti and “Nichts ist Wie” by Zsuzsanna Gahse

• Languages of publication: DE

Abstracts

EN

The paper presents an analysis of two autobiographical novels by contemporary Swiss female writers. The novels address similar issues and are also connected by similar mode of narration. The authors namely describe the loss of their fatherland – Erica Pedretti as a result of the forced expulsion action aimed at the Sudeten Germans after the World War II, Zsuzsanna Gahse as a result of escape from Hungary after the uprising of the 1956 – and the ensuing consequences. The central topic of both novels are memories: their emergence, functioning and meaning as well as the processes of their verbalization in order to accept one’s own painful experiences. The characteristic feature of narration in both novels is a strongly emphasized ‘feminine look’ at the history of the 20th century combined with a typical ‘feminine style’, whose chief qualities are, according to Hélène Cixous, among others abandonment of coherence, fragmentariness and unpredictability, multiplicity of synchronised images as well as acceptance of otherness. These ‘feminine style’ and ‘feminine look’ at the history of the 20th century serve above all to deconstruct the widely accepted perceptions and standards, which eventually lead to sanguinary wars, incessant political and ethnic conflicts as well as expulsions and escapes.

Keywords

EN

Swiss literature; history of the 20th century; feminist literature studies

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
• Journal: Colloquia Germanica Stetinensia
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 20
• Pages: 155-173

Contributors

author

Dorota Sośnicka

• Uniwersytet Szczeciński

References

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