“Die Fröste der Freiheit” Mela Hartwig, Marieluise Fleißer e il lato oscuro dell’emancipazione

Abstract

In line with the great changes that took place after World War I, in the societies of German-speaking countries women achieved important goals in the struggle for emancipation. Yet, once legal rights were gained, women had to cope with their new freedoms in public life. Between the image of the ‘New Woman’ and the harsh reality of post-war capitalistic society there was in fact a great gap. In the prose works of Marieluise Fleißer and Mela Hartwig analysed in this study, women contending with emancipation have to suffer terrible defeats. Although very different from each other, both writers share a particular interest in the dramatic contradictions of female existence in modern reality.