Mary Mackey

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Mary Mackey (2001)
Mary Mackey introduces herself

Mary Mackey (* 1945 in Indianapolis , USA ) is an American writer and professor of English literature .

Life

Mary Mackey, related on her father's side to Mark Twain , grew up in Indianapolis and studied English at Harvard University , where she graduated in 1966. In 1970 she received her PhD in comparative literature from the University of Michigan . She lived in Costa Rica in the early 1970s . From 1989 to 1992 she was Chair of the PEN American Center, West Department. Until 2008 she was Professor of English at California State University in Sacramento .

plant

Mary Mackey wrote eight novels, four volumes of poetry and a screenplay for the film Silence (1974). Her books have been translated into 11 languages ​​and have sold more than 1 million copies in total. In Germany she is particularly known for her prehistoric novels , where she generally describes the confrontation between matriarchal and patriarchal cultures.

In this context, the following works are important:

The Last Warrior Queen (German: Kornmond and Dattelwein)

This novel is set in Mesopotamia in 3643 BC. The girl Inanna lives in a patriarchally oriented nomad tribe and is forcibly married to the old Hursag. Tired of the constant torture and humiliation, she flees to the mountains, where she meets the injured Enkimdu, whom she nurses to health. He comes from the city of the dove, a matriarchy that is dominated by women, but where men are also equal companions of women.

Innana then goes to the city of the pigeon with Enkimdu and there gets to know an attitude towards life that is completely foreign to her. However, this world is threatened by the wandering nomads of Inanna's tribe, the later so-called Sumerians , and is finally going under. At the end of the novel Inanna initiated while rebuilding the city, but at the same time leads patriarchal culture elements such as the monogamous marriage and the male king (with) a domination.

Old Europe Trilogy

  • The Year The Horses Came. 1993 (Ger. In the year of the horses. Goldmann, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-442-41559-4 )
  • The Horses At The Gate. 1996 (German The Butterfly Goddess. Goldmann, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-442-41560-8 )
  • The Fires of Spring. 1998 (German. Das Lied der Erde. Blanvalet, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-442-35137-5 )

The figure constellation in these new novels is a mirror image of "Kornmond und Dattelwein". In 4372 BC There was a matriarchal culture of peaceful farmers throughout Europe who worshiped the great mother goddess . The girl Marrah from the small village of Xori in what is now Brittany discovers the shipwrecked Stavan on the coast on the day of her coming of age, of all places, who comes from a completely different - patriarchal - culture of Indo-European riding nomads who pose a deadly threat to peaceful old Europe .

Startled by his stories and the visions of her mother, the priestess Sabalah, Marrah, her brother Arang and Stavan set off on the long journey from Brittany to the steppes of southern Russia to find out more about the equestrian nomads. She is then taken prisoner by them and experiences all the atrocities of a patriarchal culture such as war , murder , torture , mutilations , slavery , exploitation , forced marriages , widows murder , rape and contempt for women .

Mary Mackey of bases its descriptions Indo-Europeans at the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas and many customs described in the novels as Widow victims are excavations of Kurgankultur occupied. The description of the matriarchal culture of ancient Europe is based on the works "The Civilization of the Goddess" and "The Language of the Goddess", which also come from Marija Gimbutas.

List of works by Mary Mackey

Novels

  • McCarthy's List. 1979
  • The Last Warrior Queen. 1983 (German: Kornmond and Dattelwein. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-596-22719-4 )
  • A grand passion. 1986 (German with passion. Wunderlich, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-8052-0460-4 )
  • The Kindness of Strangers. 1988
  • Season of Shadows. 1991
  • The Year The Horses Came. 1993 (Ger. In the year of the horses. Goldmann, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-442-41559-4 )
  • The Horses At The Gate. 1996 (German The Butterfly Goddess. Goldmann, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-442-41560-8 )
  • The Fires of Spring. 1998 (German. Das Lied der Erde. Blanvalet, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-442-35137-5 )

Volumes of poetry

  • Split ends
  • One night stand
  • Skin Deep
  • The Dear Dance of Eros

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mackey, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and professor of English literature
DATE OF BIRTH 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Indianapolis , USA