“Was Sappho für ein Weib gewesen …”

Abstract

Abstract In this article the author analyses the characterization of Sibylla Schwarz as “pommersche Sappho”. The aim is to carve out basic motivic structures as well as peculiarities of a Sapphic persona in poetry, on which Sibylla Schwarz was able to draw on in her writing and to which she is determined by her contemporaries and recipients when she is established in the literary world via the honorary title “Sappho”. In doing so, it is shown that sapphic writing is bound to certain expectations, such as musicality and high quality of the poems, reflection on strong emotions, a – partly concealed – inclusion of female homoerotic undertones, and the thematisation of the possibility of being driven to death by the power of passion as well as the unbearable bittersweetness of love. In her poems Schwarz shows her knowledge of Sappho as a female role model for women writers, but does not define her poet persona primarily or emphatically in the succession of the Greek lyric poetess Sappho.