Die fragwuerdige Zuweisung muetterlicher Schuld in der deutschsprachigen 'Muetterliteratur' der siebziger and achtziger Jahre (German text, Elfriede Jelinek, Gabriele Wohmann, Ingeborg Drewitz, Waltraud Anna Mitgutsch, Austria)

The emancipatory efforts of the women's movement in the second half of the 20th century led to an abundance of women's publications. The seventies and eighties in particular saw a substantial rise in autobiographies and novels that thematized personal experiences. In particular the female authors took issue with their traditional roles as women and mothers. While they questioned both paternal and maternal authority, the mother was almost always blamed for her daughter's suffering and failure.; The mothers in this thesis are no exception. I will show that they not only blame themselves and are blamed by their daughters, but that they are also scapegoated because they do not fit the ideal of the “good” mother. Although there are differences in the depiction of these mothers and their relationships with their daughters—depending very much on the narrator's perspective—the lack of compassion for the mother's plight is often quite obvious, and it seems that, no matter what she can not do anything right. The tyrannical Mrs. Kohut in Elfriede Jelinek's Die Klavierspielerin smothers her 36-year-old daughter Erika and is blamed for Erika's masochistic and voyeuristic tendencies. The weak and lonely mother in Gabriele Wohmann's Ausflug mit der Mutter is looked down upon by her independent and successful daughter who despises her mother's neediness and lack of independence, and distances herself for fear of becoming like her. The mother in Ingeborg Drewitz' Eis auf der Elbe explores her responsibility for her daughters' fate by telling the story of her failed marriage. And last but not least, the mothers in Waltraud Anna Mitgutsch's novel Die Züchtigung exemplify the vicious cycle of abused daughters turning into abusing mothers.