The defiant head

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The Defiant Head is the title of a girl's book by Emmy von Rhoden first published in 1885 . The novel was published by the Stuttgart publishing house Gustav Weise shortly after the author's death. He is considered one of the prototypes of the Backfisch novel .

action

The main character is Ilse Macket, who is 15 at the beginning of the plot and lives with her father and stepmother Anne on Gut Moosdorf in Pomerania . Use's mother died shortly after she was born. Ilse grows up wild and without any education, behaves boyish and bullies her governesses until the stepmother enters the house. "Frau Anne" and the pastor Wollert want to raise Ilse to be a befitting lady, but the girl resists both. Together they convince the chief magistrate Macket to give the girl to a boarding school.

Ilse enters the boarding of Miss Raimar. Here she soon became friends with the teacher Charlotte Güssow and the English student Ellinor Gray, known as Nellie. Nellie is an orphan and is preparing for the job of governess, for which Ilse deeply regrets.

The turning point is an incident in the handicraft lesson in which Ilse is exposed by Fraulein Raimar. The girl reacts with a fit of anger and risks being expelled from boarding school . As a warning, Miss Güssow tells her the life story of the girl Luzie, who frightened off the groom Kurt with her defiant nature and from now on has to earn her living as a teacher. The story makes a deep impression on Ilse. She apologizes to Fraulein Raimar and gradually fits into boarding school life.

Gradually, Ilse learned the skills intended for girls at the time, such as sewing, knitting, drawing and dancing. She also takes care of her seriously ill, somewhat younger classmate, Lili, who, however, dies of severe meningitis . The job-related absence of Lili's mother (a successful actress) is criticized as lovelessness.

On the way home from the pension, Ilse meets the district administrator's son Leo Gontrau, whom she immediately likes.

When Ilse returns to her parents' house, she finds a little brother. Her uncle Kurt is also a guest. He turns out to be the missing fiancé of Miss Güssow, who is the Luzie from the warning story. The two get married so that Miss Güssow can give up her job. Nellie also finds a man - the teacher Dr. Althoff - and no longer needs to become a governess.

The story ends with the engagement of Ilse and Leo.

Sequels

In the course of time, various sequels and follow-up volumes have appeared on The Defiant Head , the plot of which does not always build on each other: Three volumes are by Else Wildhagen , Rhodens' daughter, namely Trotskopf's bridal period (1892), From Trotson's marriage (1895) and Trotskopf's Descendants, a new sex (1930), Doris Mix published in 1895 Mrs. Ilse , the Dutchwoman Suze la Chapelle-Roobol the volume Stijfkopje als grootmoeder (German: Defiant head as grandmother , 1905) and Marie Luise Mancke under the pseudonym Marie von Felseneck the two books Trotskopf's experiences in the World War (1916) and Trotskopf married (1919). The books by Mix and by Mancke were considered plagiarism by Wildhagen (see below).

Defiant Head's Bridal Period (Else Wildhagen)

In Volume 2, Ilse leaves her parents' house after an argument with her fiancé Leo and goes to see her friend Nellie. She also meets her boarding friends Flora and Rosi, who are also married by now.

Ilse observes the behavior of the friends and realizes that Nellie is a submissive wife, while Flora's and Rosi's husbands are under the slipper. Flora is severely punished by fate for her egoism: after a sled ride that she pushed her ailing husband to do, he dies of pneumonia. Flora remains behind as a stooped young widow.

The docile Nellie appears to Ilse as the ideal of a wife. She returns to Leo and asks his forgiveness.

The friend Orla appears again. Like in the pension, she is out of the ordinary because she is planning to study medicine and is causing quite a stir. There is no doubt that women are able to study medicine, but women are seen as too fragile, physically and emotionally, to endure all the misery a doctor sees.

Orla's plan does not come to fruition as Orla talks to doctor Dr. Andres engaged. The novel ends with Ilse and Leo's marriage.

From Trotskopf's marriage (Else Wildhagen)

Volume 3 describes Ilse and Leo's family life - they are married and the parents of two daughters, Ruth and Marianne, who are eight and seven years old at the beginning of the plot. The spirited Ruth is Ilse's likeness, the gentle Marianne the opposite. Leo's friend Professor Fuchs, an old bachelor and the godfather of daughter Ruth, plays a major role.

Although Volume 3 was written by the same author as Volume 2, the relationship between the friends Ilse and Nellie has changed. The docile Nellie no longer appears as the ideal of a wife - Ilse criticizes Nellie's humility towards her husband with the words "You spoil your husband too much" and states that the irritable Dr. Althoff did not appreciate his good-natured wife enough. She also believes that a woman who says yes and amen to everything is sure to get bored with her husband Leo soon.

The friends Rosi and Flora also appear again. Flora is married to the landowner August Werner for the second time and is the mother of the twins Hildegard and Thusnelda. The pastor's wife Rosi is a domineering wife and strict mother, whose harshness causes her son Fritz to run away from home.

There is a leap in time of ten years. Rosi's son Fritz has returned home; he has become a successful businessman during his absence from America. Ilse and Leo's daughter Ruth is at the beginning of a great career as a singer, while Marianne experiences her first lovesickness.

The novel ends with Ruth's first concert and the engagement of Marianne and Fritz.

Defiant head as grandmother (Suze la Chapelle-Roobol)

Volume 4 shows Ilse Gontrau as a widow and grandmother. The death of her friend Nellie and especially the loss of her husband hit Ilse hard. After Leo's death, she loses all courage to face life for a long time, until Professor Fuchs admonishes her to get up, be grateful for the happiness she has experienced and to think about her children and grandchildren. “Uncle Heinz” is always at Use's side and her best friend. Even as an old woman, she is still spirited and often quick-tempered.

Her daughter Ruth is a famous singer, Marianne lives in America with her husband Fritz, but returns to Germany with him and their three children Maud, Agnes and Karl.

Fritz 'sister Elisabeth has become a bitter old maid who has been completely lonely since her mother's death and is mocked by young people and men. Only Ilse feels sorry for her and tries to get her around people and make them more friendly. She also vigorously explains to her granddaughters that marriage does not add value to a woman and that an unmarried woman does not have to be a ridiculous creature.

Ruth's son Gustav, a budding artist and unworldly dreamer, marries the granddaughter of the same name of Ilse's childhood friend Flora, and Agnes becomes engaged to Flora's grandson Ludwig.

Ruth's daughter Irma, who lives with Ilse, is in the foreground of the story. Irma is a pretty girl who is very childlike for her age, the opposite of her cousins ​​Maud and Agnes, whose sobriety and independence are attributed to their American upbringing.

Flora's second grandson, the farmer Hans, immediately falls in love immortally with Irma, who, however, has only ridicule for the “farmer”.

Irma raves about the noble student Otto von Hochstein, with whom she secretly meets without Use. Otto's rich parents are not allowed to find out from Irma because the daughter of an artist couple would not be good enough for them as their daughter-in-law. Otto holds out Irma with promises until the curious and gossip-addicted Aunt Elisabeth finds out about the secret meetings and initiates Ilse. Ilse forbids Irma any contact with Otto until his father asks her for Irma's hand. Irma is outraged, and her relationship with her grandmother, which had been close up until then, is beginning to crack.

Otto turns out to be a swindler: One day Irma receives a notice of his engagement to another woman. She breaks down mentally and then makes the defiant decision to marry Hans in order to prove to Otto that she is not at a loss for a man. Hans falls for Irma at first, but Ilse warns him. Hans still loves Irma, but does not want to be abused as a stopgap, Irma gives a lecture and leaves.

Similar to the way Ilse leaves home head over heels in Volume 2, Irma leaves her grandmother's house and goes to Munich with her parents. After a few weeks she returns ruefully and has now realized that she loves honest Hans. She asks his forgiveness and becomes his wife.

The novel ends - after a brief overview of the further life of Ilse's grandchildren - with Ilse's death with the family.

Despite head offspring - a new generation (Else Wildhagen)

Volume 5 was again written in 1930 by Else Wildhagen as a reply to La Chapelle-Roobol's novel and also published by the publishing house Gustav Weise, but has been forgotten. Volume 4 is now considered the last part of the series.

Plagiarism

The great success of The Defiant Head led to some imitations and alleged "sequels" of the novel by other authors who were not considered by Wildhagen as legitimate sequels of her mother's work.

In 1895 the book Frau Ilse by Doris Mix was published, which was marketed as a “continuation of Derstandskopf ”. This was not the only plagiarism , according to Wildhagen's foreword to From Trotskopf's marriage (1895): “But now, since Trotskopf literature seems to be developing from another side and others feel called and entitled to use the forms of Trotskopf books for stories if they want to be understood as a continuation of the defiant headed novels, I have to abandon my previous reservations. "(Wildhagen talks about the reasons for her decision to continue the work of her mother herself.)

In 1916 and 1919 Maria Mancke published under the pseudonym Marie von Felseneck the books Trotskopf's Experiences in World War I and Trotskopf Marries , which, like Mix's work, were quickly forgotten.

backgrounds

The model for Ilse Macket was Emmy von Rhoden's own daughter Else, who grew up in Fräulein Möder's boarding school near Eisenach . The novel was partly based on Else's diary entries. The model for Nellie Gray was Else's best friend, the Englishwoman Nellie Gladstone (a relative of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone ); Miss Güssow is modeled after the favorite teacher Emma Schwartz, Miss Lead the unsympathetic English teacher Miss Wood.

Despite a change in the image of women, the defiant head is still being re-issued today. Despite all the docility she has learned, Ilse remains a spirited girl who is loved not because of her virtues, but above all because of her naturalness. The father's remark that he liked his wild child better before shows criticism of the ideal of upbringing.

filming

In 1983, the director Helmuth Ashley filmed the novel as a multi-part television series with Anja Schüte in the leading role. The series was released in 2004 by Universal on a double DVD. The series music was written by the German composer Martin Böttcher . The film music was released on the long-playing record TELDEC 6.25468 AS.

Based on the Czech translation / adaptation by Eliška Krásnohorská , a Czech film version of the novel was published as early as 1926 under the title Svéhlavička , directed by Rudolf Měšťák.

Translations

The Defiant Head series has been translated into at least 11 languages ​​and sometimes even appeared in different translations. All of this underlines its character as an international children's book classic.

(American English Emmy von Rhoden: Taming a Tomboy . From the German by Felix Leopold Oswald . New York: WL Allison, 1898.

Emma von Rhoden: To Obstinate Maid . Translated from the German by Mary E. Ireland. Philadelphia: GW Jacobs, 1898.

Danish Emmy von Rhoden: Frøken vildkat . From the German by M. Moe. 2nd ed. Copenhagen: Kbh, 1911.
Hungarian Emmy Rhoden: A kis makranczos . From the German by Sándorné Lónyay. Budapest: Sachs - Pollák, 1900.

Emmy Rhoden: A kis makrancos mátkasága. From the German by Ilma Kövér. Budapest: Sachs, 1905.

Emmy Rhoden: Makranczos Erzsike. From the German by Juliska Koltai. Budapest: Korvin Ny., [1913].

Elza Wildhagen: A kis makrancos házassága . From the German by Margit Dávid. Budapest: Eisler, 1914.

Emmy Rhoden: Makrancos Erzsike . From the German by Andor Roboz. Budapest: Athenaeum Ny., 1922.

Suse la Chapelle-Roobol: Makrancos Erzsi mint nagymama . From the German by Andor Roboz. Budapest: Athenaeum Irodalmi és Nyomdai RT, 1929.

Emmy von Rhoden: A makrancos fruska . From the German by Anna Balassa. Budapest: Móra, 1993.

Italian Emma Rhoden: Testolina dura . From the German by Giuseppe Fadini. Firenze: Adriano Salani, 1900.

Emmy von Rhoden: Elena la ribelle . From the German by Irene Peroni Piatti. Milano: A. Vallardi, 1953.

Dutch Emmy von Rhoden: Alice: een kostschoolgeschiedenis voor jonge meisjes . From the German by Jacoba. Almelo: W. Hilarius, 1885.

Emmy von Rhoden: Stijfkopje (op school) . From the German by MA de Goeje. Leiden: EJ Brill, 1893.

Emmy von Rhoden: Stijfkopje (verloofd) . From the German by MA de Goeje. Leiden: EJ Brill, 1893.

Emmy von Rhoden: Stijfkopje (getrouwd) . From the German by M. de Bock-Hardenberg. Leiden: EJ Brill, 1896.

Emmy von Rhoden: Stijfkopje op school . From the German by Henri van Hoorn. Amsterdam: Goede Kinderlectuur, 1935.

Emmy von Rhoden: Stijfkopje op het internaat . From the German by Riek de Bruin. Alphen aan den Rijn: Geka, 1975.

Emmy Rhoden-Wildhagen: Stijfkopje op het internaat. From the German by Jan G. Steur. Aartselaar: Zuidnederlandse Uitgeverij, 1977.

Emmy von Rhoden: Stijfkopje . From the German by F. Mitchell. Dronten: Keizer, 1984.

Emmy von Rhoden: Stijfkopje . From the German by M. Keizer-Duvivier. 't Harde: Arachne, 1990.

Norwegian Emmy von Rhoden: Vildkat. From the German by Nanna Scheel. Kristiania: Jacob Dybwads, 1887.

Suse la Chapelle-Robol: Vildkat som bedstemoder . Kristiania (Oslo): Jacob Dybwad, 1906.

Else Wildhagen: Vildkats forlovelsedage. From the German by Nanna Scheel. Kristiania, Jacob Dybwads, 1906.

Else Wildhagen: Vildkats egteskap. Kristiania: Jacob Dybwads, 1916.

Polish Emmy von Rhoden: Przekora . Translated from the German by Zuzanna Zajączkowska. Wyd. nowe. Warsaw: Księg. F. Hoesick, 1919.
Russian Э. Роден: Взбалмошная Головка . From the German by А.Д Михайлова. Saint Petersburg: М.М. Ледерле, 1895.

Э. Роден: Упрямица . Translated by И Гассельблат. Saint Petersburg: А.Ф. Девриен, 1907.

Czech Emma Rhodenu: Svéhlavička: příběh z pensionátu . From the German by Eliška Krásnohorská . Praag: Rudolf Storch, 1898.
Swedish Emmy von Rhoden: I pensions . Stockholm: Bonnier, 1888.

Emmy von Rhoden: En yrhätta . From the German by Oscar Nachman. Stockholm: B. Wahlström, 1919.

(Swiss) French Emmy von Rhoden: Mauvaise tête . From the German by Bertha Bonna-de Molin. Genève: C. Eggimann, 1898.

Current issues

The novel is available from various publishers. Selection:

  • The Defiant Head (= Anaconda children's book classic ), Anaconda, Cologne (April) 2015, ISBN 978-3-7306-0223-2 .
  • The defiant head as grandmother (by Emmy von Rhoden, Else Wildhagen, Suze la Chapelle-Roobol , translated by Anne Amalia Herbst, the text was reworked and modernized by Christian Reichenbach), Belle Époque, Tübingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-945796- 41-2 .
  • Упрямица ( "Uprámnitsa" , Russian, translated by A. Vlasowa), Энас-книга, Москва 2014, ISBN 978-5-91921-282-9 .
  • The Defiant Head: A Pension Story for Adult Girls , Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 2012, ISBN 978-3-596-90491-4 .
  • The Defiant Head (Ebook), Project Gutenberg 2010 - Ebook # 31309
  • The head of defiance (abridged version, with pictures by Dieter Konsek, afterword by Freya Stephan-Kühn ), Arena, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-401-05833-9 (= children's book classics ).
  • The defiant head , Ueberreuter, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-8000-2089-0 .
  • The Defiant Head (complete edition in one volume, edited by Else Wildhagen and Suse La Chapelle-Roobol), Tosa, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-85001-100-3

literature

  • Silke Diehring: The development from the “defiant head” to the “wild chickens”: the change in the image of women in girls' reading from the 19th century to today . VDM Verlag Dr. Müller (produced on demand), Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-8364-7037-7 .
  • Theresia Feldmann: The Untameable Trotzkopf : Commerce and canonicity in the Curious Circulation of a Classic of German Children's Literature in the Low Countries and Germany, Dutch Crossing, 44: 2, pp 236-253, doi: 10.1080 / 03096564.2020.1747013 . (Open Access).
  • Dagmar Grenz: “The Defiant Head” - a bestseller then and now . In: Dagmar Grenz, Gisela Wilkending (Hrsg.): 'History of girls' reading : Girls' literature and the social situation of women from the 18th century to the present . Juvena, Weinheim / Munich 1997, ISBN 3-7799-1341-0 .
  • Klaus Johann: Limit and stop. The individual in the “House of Rules”. On German-language boarding school literature (=  contributions to recent literary history . Volume 201 ). Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-8253-1599-1 , p. 489–492 (Dissertation Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster 2002).
  • Gisela Wilkending: History of German children's and youth literature . Ed .: Reiner Wild. 3rd, completely revised and extended edition. JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-01980-6 , p. 207 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The following information is based on: Klaus Johann: Limit and stop: The individual in the "House of Rules". To German-language boarding school literature. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter 2003. (= contributions to recent literary history. 201.) P. 490.
  2. ↑ The Defiant Head in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  3. ↑ Svéhlavička. In: Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze. Retrieved June 12, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Theresia Feldmann: The Untameable Sportwettenkopf: Commerce and Canonicity in the Curious Circulation of a Classic of German Children's Literature in the Low Countries and Germany . In: Dutch Crossing . tape 44 , no. 2 , May 3, 2020, ISSN  0309-6564 , p. 236-253 , doi : 10.1080 / 03096564.2020.1747013 .