Class Year
2021
Document Type
Student Research Paper
Date of Creation
Fall 2019
Department 1
German
Abstract
In her 1977 short story “Probleme Probleme,” Ingeborg Bachmann plays with space and representations of reality in a way that reflects the disillusionment of Austria’s post-war generation. Beatrix’s two desires in the short story – to look at herself in the mirror and to sleep – both suggest a resistance to living in the real world and a dependence on the illusions of her dreams, mirrors, and the beauty salon. Although the older patrons of the salon and Beatrix try to hide from the responsibility for the past and present, the mirrors and the salon prove to be temporary illusions that are unsustainable. Sleep and mirrors become ways to avoid reality rather than coming to terms with it, which, for Bachmann, is ultimately unproductive and naïve.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Schilling, Emma G., "The Reflected (Un)Real: Space in Ingeborg Bachmann’s “Probleme Probleme”" (2019). Student Publications. 760.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/760
Comments
Written for GER 240: Introduction to German Studies: Methods and Theories.