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"Die Scheidestunde ist da": Max Halbe’s Mutter Erde (1897) and the Politics of Marriage and Divorce in German Naturalist Drama

Leydecker, Karl (2013) "Die Scheidestunde ist da": Max Halbe’s Mutter Erde (1897) and the Politics of Marriage and Divorce in German Naturalist Drama. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 49 (1). pp. 60-78. ISSN 0015-8518. E-ISSN 1471-6860. (doi:10.1093/fmls/cqs064) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:30283)

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Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqs064

Abstract

This article reads Max Halbe's late Naturalist play Mutter Erde (1897), a key work in his œuvre, in relation to German Naturalist drama and the political context in which it was written and set, namely the passage of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch für das Deutsche Reich through the Reichstag in 1896. Recovering the specific literary, political and legal context allows the ideological fault lines of the play to be laid bare and provides a corrective to the recent tendency to view Halbe's works in general, and Mutter Erde in particular, as straightforwardly pre-fascist. Detailed examination of the unpublished manuscript material relating to the play, including a revised ending from 1941, shows how Halbe changed his original plans, and the difficulties that he had with the characterization of the three central characters and the ending of the play. Ultimately Mutter Erde rejects both poles which are such a feature of Naturalist drama, being equally pessimistic about tradition and modernity, ‘Heimat’ and the city

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/fmls/cqs064
Uncontrolled keywords: Halbe, Max Mutter Erde German drama Naturalism marriage divorce politics Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PT German literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Fiona Symes
Date Deposited: 28 Aug 2012 10:00 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 12:41 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/30283 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Leydecker, Karl.

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