Max Brods Frauenbilder im Kontext der Feminitätsdiskurse einiger anderer Prager deutscher Schriftsteller by Agata Zofia Mirecka

Abstract

Reviewed by: Max Brods Frauenbilder im Kontext der Feminitätsdiskurse einiger anderer Prager deutscher Schriftstellerby Agata Zofia Mirecka Traci S. O'Brien Agata Zofia Mirecka, Max Brods Frauenbilder im Kontext der Feminitätsdiskurse einiger anderer Prager deutscher Schriftsteller. Warschauer Studien zur Germanistik und zur Angewandten Linguistik. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, 2014. 148 pp. Although several of Max Brod's novels have recently reappeared in new editions, the scholarly attention paid to Brod's oeuvre pales in comparison to the bright light shone on his better-known friend and fellow Prague German, Franz Kafkas. Agata Mirecka's study on Brod's representation of women ventures onto relatively untrodden ground. Indeed, as Mirecka states in her foreword, such work is vital because Brod's images of women have not yet been extensively studied, even though the topic was of great importance to Brod himself (12). Furthermore, she asserts that her analysis of the different functions that women serve—wife, lover, mother—over the long span of his creative period will show Brod's "innere Entwicklung" (13). Thus, Mirecka emphasizes Brod's biography in order to highlight the relationship between Brod's lived experience and its literary representation (13). Finally, by comparing his work with that of other Prague German authors she hopes to shed more light on Brod's image of the feminine, and the ambivalence of his depiction of women should thus contribute to a "Neubewertung" (13) of his work. She sets the theoretical bar pretty high by declaring that she will uncover the "sinnbildlichen semiotischen Prozess, durch den Max Brods Verständnis vom Weiblichen und von der Frau bestimmt wird" (14). In the end, however, her analytical scope is a bit too narrow to accomplish this goal. After the brief foreword, where Mirecka introduces her project, come three short chapters on Brod's biography and the intellectual context for his work; the history of the Prague Circle; and the theoretical foundations of her own work. These are followed by a much longer chapter on the different categories of female characters in Brod's work, after which Mirecka includes three short chapters dedicated to a summary of her findings on Brod's images of women, a comparison to four other well-known Prague German authors (and their representation of women), and a brief conclusion. The strengths of Mirecka's work lie in her ability to depict the milieu in which Brod grew to intellectual maturity, which accounts for the sophistication of his worldview. She has also chosen an interesting selection of Brod's less-known fiction. Though her narrative of Brod's formative years in multicultural Prague does not break new ground, it is very appealingly told. [End Page 137]She introduces his parents briefly—gentle father, exacting and controlling mother—and the tremendous physical challenges that young Brod faced, a potential tragedy for someone who "dürstete […] nach Schönheit" (18). Mirecka then moves on to Brod's university years, his friendship with Kafkas, and his early, short-lived enthusiasm for Schopenhauer. She takes us quickly through the critical literature of his early expressionistic work, Schloss Nornepygge, its "Indifferentismus," and Brod's almost immediate rejection of Expressionism even as this novel was being hailed by this movement in Berlin (20–21). Mirecka also touches upon Brod's "Entwicklung als Jude" (22) through exposure to Martin Buber and Theodor Herzl. Brod subsequently developed his idea of "Distanzliebe" as a way of creating true exchange and understanding between cultures (25), a concept that he continued to develop throughout his life. Evidence of such cultural bridge-building is to be found in Brod's early recognition of Czech talents such as Jaroslav Hašek and Leoš Janaček (26) as well as his political involvement in interwar Prague. Mirecka does not dwell on these interwar years but jumps ahead to 1938 and Brod's escape as the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia. She ends the short chapter on Brod's beliefs about touching infinity within a mortal life and his engagement for humanity as a whole (31). Mirecka's next chapter, on the Prague Circle, is also relevant: She summarizes the history of the German-speaking Czechs in Prague, citing Margarita Pazi...