Structure and time, narrative perspective and feminism in Irmtraud Morgner's Leben und Abenteuer der Trobadora Beatriz nach Zeugnissen ihrer Spielfrau Laura
Date
1989
Authors
Abbott, Maria Klara
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The structure of the novel Leben und Abenteuer der Trobadora Beatriz nach Zeugnissen ihrer .Spielfrau Laura is problematic. Most critical literature describes it as a Montageroman because of its seemingly chaotic sequence. Irmtraud Morgner rejects the term as inappropriate and insists that she adhered to a strict plan. Such a plan has not been recognised by the critics who have interpreted the novel so far.
This thesis examines whether there is such a plan and whether Irmtraud Morgner is thus justified in dismissing her critics' failure to recognise the complete structure of her book. It concludes that a very sophisticated mechanical and thematic structure does indeed exist in this work. The thematic structure lies in the feminist orientation of the novel, in its subject matter and viewpoint. The mechanical structure is based upon time, specifically upon the calendar for the period from May 6, 1968 to August 22, 1973. The calendar is the matrix in which the fictional story and the factual information is embedded. A study of structure is a study of the complications, of the means by which this obvious skeleton has been obscured.
The seemingly chaotic sequence reflects the thematic structure. The mechanical structure is the plan by which the author, in the person of a fictional editor with her own name, imposes order upon chaos and still lets it appear to be chaotic.
The thesis reveals that Leben und Abenteuer is a feminist novel, and not a text in which the GDR and its politics dominate. It is basically and primarily a critique of Western patriarchal . civilisation from the perspective of modern women. The subject matter is the emancipation of women and their particular problems in the period during which the book was written and which it chronicles. Leben und Abenteuer is both a product and a mirror of its time. It reflects the gender of the author, and looks at actual life as a reflection of the theories which support the partriarchal status quo. It finds both life and theory wanting.