Barbara (Joseph Roth)

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Barbara is a short story by Joseph Roth that first appeared on April 14, 1918 in the Wiener Blatt Österreichs Illustrierte Zeitung . The author tells of the "hardship of the lower classes", summarizes Sternburg .

content

Barbara, orphaned at the age of 16, is married to a squat carpenter by her uncle. Philip emerges from the marriage. The father dies in an accident at work. Barbara struggles with the child and gets to know and love Peter Wendelin, a writer for a lawyer. Your affection is reciprocated. But Barbara denies herself the happiness of her life. It mustn't be - because of the son. With the help of her hands, the young mother devotedly enables her beloved son to receive a higher education. Philipp is studying religious studies and is doing his doctorate. Working as a laundress, Barbara ages early and ruins her health. On her deathbed, she hesitantly tells her son about her love for Peter Wendelin. Philip, whose dull and stiff nature is apparently a paternal inheritance, answers her confession with a yawn. Barbara dies.

reception

Jean Paul Bier: Some passages are kitsch (deathbed scene). In addition, the didactic chronicle of saints is imitated.

literature

  • Österreichs Illustrierte Zeitung, 1917/1918, issue 28, April 1918, page 500/501 on the Internet

Quoted text edition

  • Fritz Hackert (Ed.): Joseph Roth. Works. Volume 4: Novels and Stories. 1916-1929. Pp. 14-22: Barbara. 1918. With an afterword by the editor. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7632-2988-4 .

Secondary literature

  • Jean Paul Bier: Assimilatory spelling and onomastic irony in Roth's early narrative work. P. 29–40 in Michael Kessler (Ed.), Fritz Hackert (Ed.): Joseph Roth: Interpretation - Criticism - Reception. Files from the international, interdisciplinary symposium 1989, Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Stauffenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr, Tübingen 1990 (2nd edition 1994) ISBN 3-923721-45-5
  • Wilhelm von Sternburg : Joseph Roth. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009 (2nd edition), ISBN 978-3-462-05555-9 , pp. 183-184

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sternburg, p. 184, 5th Zvu
  2. ↑ Beer, p. 32