Elke Liebs

Elke Liebs with husband Efim Etkind (1991)

Elke Liebs , née Elke Schroeder, (born January 29, 1942 in Berlin ) is a German librarian , literary scholar and psychotherapist .

Life

Elke Schroeder was born after three brothers as the fourth child of her mother Ingrid Schroeder, née of Jewish origin. Doering, and her father Wilm Schroeder, chief editor. The family lived in Berlin . When the father died in the war in 1944, the family moved to live with relatives in Karlsruhe . After the humanistic Abitur at the Bismarck-Gymnasium Karlsruhe , she began studying German and English in Tübingen (also at the Leibniz College 1962-63), then from 1963 to 1964 she continued studying in Heidelberg in the subjects of German, English and theology away. Their daughter was born in 1962 and their son in 1965. In 1964 she married Eckart Liebs. From 1965 to 1968 she completed her studies in library science in Stuttgart , from which she graduated with a diploma. Afterwards further studies in German, psychology and English at the University of Stuttgart . In 1975 she received her doctorate from the University of Stuttgart with a cultural-historical treatise on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and his socialization patterns in German youth developments over 250 years . Between 1972 and 1975 she received a doctoral scholarship.

From 1976 to 1984 she worked as a research assistant at the University of Münster . At the same time Elke Liebs completed a three-year additional training as a conversation psychotherapist . In addition to her university work, she worked as a freelancer in a psychological practice and completed her habilitation in German studies with a cultural studies-comparative thesis on 'Childhood and Death' through 700 years in 1984. Until 1989 she worked as a private lecturer at the University of Münster.

She then received an appointment as Head of Department at the University of Oregon . In 1994 she returned to Germany to the Institute for German Studies at the University of Potsdam . There Liebs became a full professor , institute director and vice dean , at the same time a member of the board of the Autonomous Women's Center in Potsdam, which after 2000 also had a “ literary salon ” run by her for three years . In 2007 she retired . She was married to the Russian literary scholar and dissident Efim Etkind for the second time .

With interruptions, but continuously until today (as of 2015), she pursues her psychotherapeutic work. Organization and participation in numerous international conferences at home and abroad with corresponding lectures. Elke Liebs held visiting professorships in Frankfurt a. M. , Florida , Chicago and Tehran .

Focus in research and teaching

After initially emphasizing her teaching and research work in the field of children's and youth literature as well as a cultural history of childhood, Elke Liebs increasingly concentrated on gender studies , female socialization and role models in society and the staging of femininity in the mirror of literature, especially in the 19th century . and 20th century. In doing so, she increasingly included the instruments of psychoanalysis and the world of theater and opera in her interdisciplinary and comparative studies. Numerous works are devoted to an intercultural history of material and motifs through the centuries. For 30 years Elke Liebs has been on the trail of creative writing processes in all branches and age groups of society. Her most recent publications deal primarily with the connection between text and music, with operatic material and libretti , the protagonists of which , mostly women or even half children, uncover focal points of social contradictions in their failure.

Publications (selection)

Books

• The Melancholy of Happiness: Living with Efim G. Etkind. Biography. united pc, Neckenmarkt / Berlin 2013, 374 pp. ISBN 9783710300189 .
• Jews and Judaism in German-language literature (= Jewish culture. Studies on intellectual history, religion and literature 15). Edited by Willi Jasper / Eva Lezzi / Elke Liebs / Helmut Peitsch. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006, 444 pp. ISBN 9783447052726 .
• From Potsdam to Moscow and back: on the occasion of Margarete Buber-Neumann's 100th birthday . Margrid Bircken , Elke Liebs (Eds.) GNN Verlag, Schkeuditz 2002, 243 pp. ISBN 3898191206 .
• Mothers, daughters, women. Images of Femininity in German Literature. Ed. Together with Helga Kraft. Stuttgart (Metzler) 1993, 346 pp. ISBN 9783476008879 .
• The most delicious of all. About the desire to eat and the hunger for love. Stuttgart / Zurich (Kreuz Verl.) 1988, 346 pp. ISBN 9783268000630 .
• Childhood and death. The Pied Piper Myth as a Contribution to the Cultural History of Childhood. Munich (Fink) 1986, 484 pp. ISBN 9783770522972 .
• The educational island. Studies on the reception of 'Robinson Crusoe' in German youth adaptations. Stuttgart (Metzler) 1977, 258 pp. ISBN 9783476003584 .

Articles (selection)

• Siegfried - Coming of Age. Special edition of the Bavarian State Opera on the new production of Richard Wagner's “Siegfried”, Munich 2013, pp. 20–37.
• Bad girls in the opera. In: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebellious - desperate - infamous. The bad girl as an aesthetic figure. Aisthesis Verl., Bielefeld 2012.
• An unruly, stubborn and helpless heart. Essay on childhood in opera. In: MAX JOSEPH. 'Child's Soul'. Magazine of the Bavarian State Opera, Verlag Hoffmann und Campe, No. 2, 2010/2011 (10 pages).
• Michal: Bride of Sorrow - Bride of Sorrow. Grete Weil's other Bible reading in The Bride Price . In: Text & Critique , Zs. Für Literatur, Hrsg. Von Heinz Ludwig Arnold, Vol. 182, Munich 2009, pp. 67–79.
• Magic Fire and Phoenix Ash (on Gerlind Reinshagen's autobiographical report: “Vom Feuer”). In: A world of language. Edited by Therese Hörnigk / Helga W. Kraft, Verl. Theater der Zeit 2008, pp. 186–192.
• Eros of the Impossible (III) or The Ontology of Lack. Goethe and Plato . In: Goethe: New Views - New Insights. Edited by Hans-Jörg Knobloch / Helmut Koopmann. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2007, pp. 135–159.
• Eros of the impossible (II). In: Great feelings. A kaleidoscope. Edited by Ottmar Ette and Gertrud Lehnert . Kulturverlag Kadmos Berlin 2007, pp. 50–78.
• Eros of the Impossible (I) Notes on Wagner's “ Tristan ” and other great lovers in the opera. In: Oper aktuell. The Bavarian State Opera 2006/2007, “Completed Unfinished”. Edited by the company z. Funding Munich Opera Festival. Stiebner: Munich 2006.
• The body in exile. Body and nationality in Irene Dische's work . In: Nation and Gender. Interplay of identity constructs (series East-West Discourses 5). Edited by Christa Ebert and Malgorzata Trebisz. Scripvaz-Verl. Berlin 2004.
• Royal children. To the libretto by Elsa Bernstein to Engelbert Humperdinck's opera “Königskinder”. In: Program for the new production at the Bavarian State Opera , Munich 2004, pp. 84–93.
• Who is afraid of " trivial literature "? Eugenie Marlitt's quiet revolution. In: Feministische Studien , Vol. 22 , H. 2/2004, pp. 167-179.
• Mundus vult decipi. The multiple struggle for memory. Wilkomirski vs. Zvi Kolitz et al. In: I. Dieckmann / J. Schoeps (Ed.): The Wilkomirski Syndrome . Imagined memories or the longing to be a victim. Zurich 2002, 301–334.
• The century of the wolves or: traveling against your will. The so-called "camp literature" ( Nadeschda Mandelstam , Jewgenia Ginzburg , Margarete Buber-Neumann ). In: Traveling head over heels. Travels in Women's Literature. Contributions to a scientific conference in Neubrandenburg. Margrid Bircken / Heide Hampel (eds.) Literaturzentrum Neubrandenburg, federchen Verl. 2002, pp. 21–45.
• Grete Weil: A Jewish Antigone . In: Facing Fascism and Confronting the Past. German Women Writers from Weimar to the Present. Ed. By Elke P. Frederiksen and Martha Kaarsberg Wallach, New York State University Press 2000, pp. 235-245.
• The process of seduction. Jean Paul's Titan . In: What one cannot (yet) talk about, art can sing a song about - texts and readings. Contributions to art, literature and language criticism. Ed. Hans-Christian Stillmark, Brigitte Krüger. Frankfurt / Main et al. (Peter Lang) 2001, pp. 163–176.
• "Les Ailes du Désir" - ou le langage des Anges: Le Poème de Pushkin "La Gabriéliade" (1821). In: Revue des Ètudes Slaves. L'espace Poétique. En homage to Efim Etkind. Tome 70, Fasc. 3, Paris 1998, pp. 629-641.
• The maid's hour. Aesthetics of the intimate in the mirror of social upheavals. In: The images of the new woman in the modern age and the modernization processes of the 20th century. Edited by K. Gabryjelska, M. Czarnecka and C. Ebert. Wrocław 1998, pp. 97–121.
• A Jewish Antigone. In: Sense and Form. Contributions to the literature. Published by the Akademie der Künste , 46th year, 2nd issue, Aufbau-Verl. Berlin 1994, pp. 291-299.
• Language, Feelings and Social Learning in Children's Literature. In: The World of Children in Children's Books. International Board on Books for Young People, 23rd World Congress 7. – 12. September 1992 in Berlin, Germany. Arbeitskreis KJL, Munich 1992, pp. 65–79.
• “Making emotions readable”. Language, feeling and social learning in children's and youth literature. Plenary lecture at the 23rd Congress of the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY), Berlin 7. – 12. September 1992.
• Rogues, castaways and onlookers. Robinsonades / aventures as an alibi for critics of civilization, God seekers and erotomaniacs. In: Reisekultur 1648–1848. Edited by Hermann Bausinger, K. Beyrer et al. Munich 1991.
• Melusine, for example: the reception of fairy tales and myths in the prose of the GDR. In: Monitor. New views. The Reception of Romanticism in the Literature of the GDR. Ed. By Howard Gaskill, Karin McPherson and Andrew Barker. No. 6, Rodopi, Amsterdam 1990, pp. 126-142.
• Life is a healing catastrophe. Everyday images in contemporary German-language literature. In: Life is a healing catastrophe. Edited by Karl-Heinz Delille, Goethe-Institut Coimbra 1990, pp. 38–59.
• Possibility women and reality men. Thinking about the causes of vegetative and ideal dystonia in the literary context of the Melusinen motif. In: Lulu, Lilith, Mona Lisa ... images of women from the turn of the century. Edited by Irmgard Roebling. Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus-Verl.-Ges, 1989.
• The right of way. Natural storytelling in therapy. In: Tell. The rediscovery of a forgotten art. Edited by Johannes Merkel / Michael Nagel. Rowohlt-Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1982, pp. 186-198.

Web links

• Homepage of Elke Liebs
• Directory of Germanists University of Erlangen
• Institute for German Studies at the University of Potsdam