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

magical realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical rea ...

concerned predominantly with the role of gender in

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

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 Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

, the daughter of a

railroad engineer A train driver is a person who operates a train, railcar, or other rail transport vehicle. The driver is in charge of and is responsible for the mechanical operation of the train, train speed, and all of the train handling (also known as bra ...

. 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 an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

) and

Literary studies A genre of arts criticism, 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 analysis of literature's ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

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 were divorced in 1970. She was 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 feminism, radical feminist member of the American Feminist movement, Wom ...

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

Work

After producing a number of relatively conventional socialist realist 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 ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

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 between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...

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 Writers from Chemnitz East German writers East German women German 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