ingest cdrApp 2017-07-06T12:45:39.420Z ccd64451-f0fc-4a42-94ad-226f4041fa4f modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT cdrApp 2017-07-06T13:18:19.788Z Setting exclusive relation modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-06T13:35:33.834Z Setting exclusive relation modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-06T13:35:42.077Z Setting exclusive relation addDatastream MD_TECHNICAL fedoraAdmin 2017-07-06T13:35:50.253Z Adding technical metadata derived by FITS modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-06T13:36:06.610Z Setting exclusive relation addDatastream MD_FULL_TEXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-06T13:36:15.597Z Adding full text metadata extracted by Apache Tika modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-06T13:36:32.052Z Setting exclusive relation modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2018-01-25T09:42:59.793Z Setting invalid vocabulary terms modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-01-25T09:43:12.179Z modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2018-01-27T09:58:53.250Z Setting invalid vocabulary terms modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-01-27T09:59:04.346Z modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2018-02-17T08:54:39.637Z Setting invalid vocabulary terms modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2018-02-28T14:21:10.518Z Setting invalid vocabulary terms modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-02-28T14:21:21.548Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-03-14T06:49:14.021Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-05-17T18:17:29.103Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-07-11T05:14:04.378Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-07-18T01:28:45.596Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-08-16T14:39:50.137Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-09-27T01:10:45.667Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-10-12T01:44:17.273Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2019-03-20T19:54:37.538Z Claire Scott Author Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. Spring 2017 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. Spring 2017 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. Spring 2017 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. Spring 2017 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. 2017-05 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text 2017-05 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Degree granting institution Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism; film; literature; melodrama; mythology; violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text 2017-05 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Degree granting institution Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism, film, literature, melodrama, mythology, violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Claire Scott Creator Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies College of Arts and Sciences This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded. To counteract repetitive mythmaking, these texts push the formal boundaries of genre, advocating for heterogeneous storytelling in which more than one voice is expressed. The second chapter analyzes Elfriede Jelinek’s Lust (1989) in terms of pornographic and melodramatic tropes. By contrasting pornography (with its emphasis on fulfilled desire) and melodrama (with its emphasis on thwarted desire), Jelinek confronts the inescapable violence in even the most intimate human relationships. The third chapter discusses Margarethe von Trotta’s film about the militant violence of the Red Army Faction, Die bleierne Zeit (1981). By highlighting this film’s engagement with the mythological story of Antigone, this chapter demonstrates how the sisters in the film engage in collaborative mothering and memory work. The final chapter brings together R.W. Fassbinder’s Martha (1974) and Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980). The protagonists of both films are drawn into cycles of domestic violence that leave them paralyzed and prone to acts of self harm, thereby alerting viewers to the ways in which they have uncritically accepted narratives about gender, history, and marriage. 2017 German literature Gender studies feminism; film; literature; melodrama; mythology; violence eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Kata Gellen Thesis advisor Stefani Engelstein Thesis advisor Richard Langston Thesis advisor Priscilla Layne Thesis advisor Inga Pollmann Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Scott_unc_0153D_16880.pdf uuid:5e173fad-e2c2-49be-ba4f-d9e54a2251cf proquest 2019-07-06T00:00:00 2017-04-11T14:23:44Z yes application/pdf 4503946