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- Title
Housebound: Selfhood and Domestic Space in Narratives by Judith Hermann and Susanne Fischer.
- Authors
Shafi, Monika
- Abstract
This article examines the depiction and role of domestic space and houses in the short stories "Zuhälter" (2003) and "Sommerhaus, später" (1998) by Judith Hermann and the novel Die Platzanweiserin (2006) by Susanne Fischer. It argues that the focus on home and houses grates against the characters' urban mobility and mindset and that these texts attempt to invert the dichotomy of private and public space by endowing the city with "homely" features and portraying the home as alienating. Moreover, the quest for shelter and selfhood is also associated with the dilapidated, ugly or haunted house. By appropriating the haunted house motif, these narratives rework Romantic and Gothic traditions that reveal the women characters' deep-seated lack of selfhood that relates to contemporary patterns of commitment and autonomy.
- Subjects
DOMESTIC space; NARRATIVES; PUBLIC spaces; REWORK (Printed circuits); HAUNTED houses
- Publication
Amsterdamer Beiträge zur Neueren Germanistik, 2009, Vol 67, Issue 1, p341
- ISSN
0304-6257
- Publication type
Article