The death of the prince charming
The Death of the Fairytale Prince is an autobiographical novel by Svende Merian , which was published in 1980 and was widely circulated in the environment of the German peace , women's and anti-nuclear movement , in which he also plays.
action
The novel is divided into four sections, each of which is introduced by poetry.
“Left woman, 24, would like to meet unmanly men, preferably younger.” In the first part, Svende met Arne through this contact ad in the Hamburg city magazine Oxmox . Svende is 24 years old and passionate about women , Arne is 26 and in the anti-nuclear movement . Svende falls head over heels in love with Arne: For years she only had unsatisfactory sex with various partners, which she felt forced to under the catchphrase of the sexual revolution and apparent emancipation (the author uses the spelling "emancipation" in this context). In contrast, Arne's tenderness now appears to her as something special. She believes she has found her Prince Charming, even if she sees some issues - such as contraception - still need to be discussed.
Second section: After just a few weeks, Svende sees Arne increasingly distant. When she tries to talk about the relationship, he tells her that he has no "crush" on her. Later he offers to continue the relationship "very laxly". Both continue to meet, but Arne increasingly misses appointments, and hopes to continue the relationship with his ex-girlfriend Sabine. Svende argues with him that he should admit that he is a pig, but she does not get through to him. She also seeks contact with his ex-girlfriend, with whom she then gets along very well.
The third section begins with Svende's decision to write a book about her relationship with Arne. Her feelings for Arne are ambivalent: she wants to get away from him, but also seeks contact with him again and again. Together with a friend, she sprays the words “A misogynist lives here too” on his window. She tries to analyze his behavior and his feelings and blames his growing up in the home for his detachment. At the end of this section she says goodbye to the ideal of the Prince Charming.
In the short fourth section the book has become more important to her than Arne. The author makes it clear that she sees her book as political work in the context of the demand “The private is political” .
reply
The cabaret artist Henning Venske published an illustrated reply book under the pseudonym Arne Piewitz in 1983 under the title Ich war der Märchenprinz , in which he presented his view of things. Der Spiegel wrote about it: “That reads, logo, far funnier than the original Prince Charming ; Mockery takes precedence over heartache. "
Psychoanalytic reflection
In 1985, towards the end of his book The Fear of Proximity, Wolfgang Schmidbauer analyzed the communication disorders and misunderstandings between the protagonists Svende and Arne described in The Death of the Fairy Tale Prince.
literature
- Gerhard Henschel : Letter and spitting campaign from the year 80. In: concrete . No. 9, 2007, p. 47.