Nostalgia, utopia and play in fairy tales
of contemporary German literature
Fairy-tale motives and narratives seem to be more up to date than ever and are employed and updated in a wide variety of mode in the German literature of the 20th and the 21th century. M.L. Kaschnitz’ Der alte Garten – a tale between idyll
and apocalypse – offers an utopian concept of human life in harmony with nature, addressing men’s moral responsibility. Wit and irony, parody and gender play structure K. Duve’s fairy-tale-novel Die entführte Prinzessin and her ‘corrections’
of the KHM-pretexts in Grrrimm. Very different again is M. Lüder’s Aminas Restaurant using elements of oriental fairy tales as escape routes from reality. These and many other examples employ fairy-tale elements as collective survival
narratives in – or even especially in – times of modern and postmodern crises.
Keywords / Anahtar Sözcükler: Parody, gender play with fairy-tale motives,
utopian concept, correction of Grimm-pretexts, escapist function, collective
survival narratives in crises.
Nostalgia, utopia and play in fairy tales of contemporary German literatureFairy-tale motives and narratives seem to be more up to date than ever and are employed and updated in a wide variety of mode in the German literature of the th and the 21th century. M.L. Kaschnitz’ Der alte Garten – a tale between idyll and apocalypse – offers an utopian concept of human life in harmony with nature, addressing men’s moral responsibility. Wit and irony, parody and gender play structure K. Duve’s fairy-tale-novel Die entführte Prinzessin and her ‘corrections’ of the KHM-pretexts in Grrrimm. Very different again is M. Lüder’s Aminas Restaurant using elements of oriental fairy tales as escape routes from reality. These and many other examples employ fairy-tale elements as collective survival narratives in – or even especially in – times of modern and postmodern crises.
Parody gender play with fairy-tale motives utopian concept correction of Grimm-pretexts escapist function collective survival narratives in crises.
Primary Language | German |
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Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | May 27, 2014 |
Submission Date | May 27, 2014 |
Published in Issue | Year 2013 Volume: 2 Issue: 30 |