E-Thesis 241 views
Mothers, Madonnas, Monsters, or Madwomen? A Comparative Study of the Literary Commemorations of Queen Luise of Prussia and Empress Elisabeth of Austria / RHOSLYN BECKWITH
Swansea University Author: RHOSLYN BECKWITH
DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.65404
Abstract
Drawing on memory studies theories, particularly Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire, this study examines key texts from the commemorative literary corpora of Queen Luise of Prussia (1776-1810) and Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898). These works of life writing, both traditionally biogra...
| Published: |
Swansea, Wales, UK
2023
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| Institution: | Swansea University |
| Degree level: | Doctoral |
| Degree name: | Ph.D |
| Supervisor: | Jones, Kathryn N. and Preece, Julian. |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65404 |
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| Abstract: |
Drawing on memory studies theories, particularly Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire, this study examines key texts from the commemorative literary corpora of Queen Luise of Prussia (1776-1810) and Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898). These works of life writing, both traditionally biographical and fictionalised accounts, exemplify the differences in approach taken to commemorating two women once described as the founding mother figures of their respective countries. Moreover, they also function as case studies to reveal contrasting attitudes towards national history in Germany and Austria after 1945 and how these have developed over the last century. While Empress Elisabeth (Sissi/ Sisi) remains prominent today within the Viennese visual landscape, embodying the nostalgia central to the Austrian sense of national identity through its links to its “beautiful ancestor,” Queen Luise seems largely forgotten in present day Berlin. In academic circles, however, it is Queen Luise’s commemorations which have been examined more comprehensively, while Empress Elisabeth’s literary corpus remains comparatively underexplored. This thesis argues that as lieux de mémoire, the representations of these women in literature have moved through periods of obsolescence and rediscovery. At times their connections to national history have made them taboo subjects, while at others they have functioned as propagandistic tools or symbols of the “ideal” woman. This study contends that the biographical texts reveal as much about contemporary attitudes towards women and history as they do about the monarchs themselves. Engaging with theories of postmodernism and celebrity studies, this thesis also argues that while the dominant narrative mainstream of Empress Elisabeth’s corpus, in particular, remains marked by the conventional and conservative rhetoric common to royal biographies, the subversive undercurrents of several twenty-first-century works about Queen Luise and Empress Elisabeth indicate the ways in which attitudes towards idealised history are changing and becoming more nuanced in both Germany and Austria. |
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| Keywords: |
lieu de mémoire, Queen Luise, Empress Elisabeth, Prussia, Austria, memory studies, history, founding mothers, national narratives, commemoration, life writing, national history, nostalgia, perverse nostalgia, postmodernism, celebrity studies. |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
James Pantyfedwen Trust |