Irmtraud Morgner, (22 August 19336 May 1990), was a German writer, best known for works of

magical realism Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse * "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr * '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...

concerned predominantly with the role of gender in

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

society.

Life

Irmtraud Morgner was born in 1933 in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

, the daughter of a

railroad engineer A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

. She took her

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

in 1952, before studying ''Germanistik'' (

German studies German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

) and

Literary studies Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

until 1956. She worked for the magazine ''neue deutsche literatur'' (New German Literature, a journal noted for a degree of confrontation with East German cultural policy) until 1958, after which she lived as a freelance author. Morgner's first marriage was to Joachim Schreck, later an editor at the publishers Aufbau-Verlag. She gave birth to a son in 1967. Morgner and Schreck divorced in 1970. She married again in 1972, to Paul Wiens, a fellow poet and author. Wiens, like many thousands in East German, was an 'unofficial employee' of the Stasi and informed on Morgner throughout their marriage. They divorced in 1977. She contributed the piece "Witch Vilmma's invention of speech-swallowing" to the 1984 anthology '' Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology'', edited by

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

. Morgner was diagnosed with cancer in 1987. She received several operations during the late 1980s, but died in May 1990.

Work

After producing a number of relatively conventional

socialist realist Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ...

works, she gained a greater degree of notability and success in 1968 with the novel ''Hochzeit in Konstantinopel'' (Wedding in Constantinople). This work, a blend of realism and fantasy exploring

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

themes, was a fresh development in East German literature. While her work as a whole is generally argued to be predominantly concerned with gender, Morgner also touches upon other issues in East German society. She clearly satirises the stultifying effect of censorship on literature under the regime, censorship that she herself often fell foul of. Whilst winning notable awards in East Germany, she was nevertheless subject to surveillance herself, and her works to heavy editing and often rejection. Her magnum opus may be considered ''Leben und Abenteuer der Trobadora Beatriz nach Zeugnissen ihrer Spielfrau Laura'' (The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice as Chronicled by Her Minstrel Laura). A 'novel in thirteen books and seven intermezzos', it may be considered an

epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse documents of other kinds with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered ...

as it includes (other than straight narrative) love poetry, morse code, exchanges of correspondence and transcripts. The 'intermezzos' were created from ''Rumba auf einen Herbst'' (Rumba for Autumn), a novel previously rejected by the censors in 1965. Together with its sequel ''Amanda. Ein Hexenroman'' (Amanda. A Witch's Tale), ''Leben und Abenteuer der Trobadora Beatriz…'' was to form a trilogy centred on 'Laura (Amanda) Salman', . In her final years, cancer somewhat impaired her productivity, and she never completed the 'Salman trilogy'. Fragments of the third novel were later published posthumously as ''Das heroische Testament'' (The Heroic Testament).

Works

* ''Das Signal steht auf Fahrt''. Berlin, 1959 * ''Ein Haus am Rand der Stadt''. Berlin, 1962 * ''Hochzeit in Konstantinopel''. Berlin, 1968 * ''Gauklerlegende''. Berlin, 1970 * ''Die wundersamen Reisen Gustavs des Weltfahrers''. Berlin, 1972 * ''Leben und Abenteuer der Trobadora Beatriz nach Zeugnissen ihrer Spielfrau Laura''. Berlin, 1974 ** ''The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice as Chronicled by Her Minstrel Laura'' (translated by Jeanette Clausen). Nebraska, 2000 * ''Geschlechtertausch'' (with Sarah Kirsch und Christa Wolf). Darmstadt, 1980 * ''Amanda. Ein Hexenroman'' (Amanda. A Witch's Tale). Berlin, 1983 * ''Die Hexe im Landhaus'' (with Erica Pedretti). Zürich, 1984 * ''Der Schöne und das Biest''. Leipzig, 1991 * ''Rumba auf einen Herbst''. Hamburg, 1992 * ''Das heroische Testament'' (The Heroic Testament). München, 1998 * ''Erzählungen''. Berlin, 2006

References

External links

Geoff Westgate introduces Irmtraud Morgner
(''New Books in German'')

(''Complete Review'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgner, Irmtraud 1933 births 1990 deaths People from Chemnitz Writers from Saxony East German writers East German women Feminist writers German socialist feminists Socialist realism writers German Protestants Marxist feminists German communists Magic realism writers 20th-century German women writers Communist women writers Heinrich Mann Prize winners