Mirror story
The Mirror story of Ilse Aichinger was written in 1949 and in August of the same year in four episodes in the Vienna newspaper published. In 1952, the author received the group 47 literary prize for this prose piece . The story is about a woman whose life story is told backwards. At the beginning and at the end of the story is death . An outside voice tells the young woman about her life in the " you-form ".
analysis
Ilse Aichinger's short story Mirror Story treats the period between the birth and death of a woman in reverse order. It is an epic prose text of the special genre short story. This can be seen in the open beginning of the story and the presence of a single main character. The story is of an authorialYou-narrator tells, mostly in the present indicative with future reference, sometimes also in the imperative ["Go now, now is the moment ..."]. The narrator comments on the plot and is omnipotent about what constitutes the authorial narrative situation. The story is told from the inside of the character (telling). This can be seen in the detailed description of the main character's emotional world (interior view), but the narrator is omniscient and is not limited to the main character's knowledge (telling). The plot is narrated, but the plot is not continuous. Evidence of this can often be found in places where people interact with one another. The scene in which the undertakers open the coffin is directed forward, although the story is told in reverse. The scene with the "old woman" is also evidence of the discontinuity, as it is logical as it stands in the text, but does not fit the narrative form that runs backwards. The narrative structure is limited to one narrative thread. There are also predictions and flashbacks , for example right at the beginning: "If someone has your bed ...". Since it is a short story that deals with the whole life of a woman, the story must of necessity be told in time lapse. The reading time ( narration time ) is about 5 to 8 minutes and the time told is a lifetime. As symbols and ciphers can be found and in history. a. the green sky, the ships, the yellow flowers and above all the blind mirror. The blind mirror would have to be explained in more detail, as it justifies the discontinuity of history and thus straightens the absurd again.
Bibliography
- Wilfried Barner : Ilse Aichinger: "Mirror story" . In: Classic German short stories. Interpretations. Edited by Werner Bellmann . Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 76-88.
- Peter Beicken : The story of life and death. Ilse Aichinger's “Mirror Story” as an intermedial narrative cinema. In: Ilse Aichinger. Mistrust as commitment? Edited by Ingeborg Rabenstein-Michel [u. a.]. Würzburg 2009, pp. 109-122.
- U. Henry Gerlach: Ilse Aichinger's "Mirror Story". A unique story. In: Austria in History and Literature , Vol. 40 (1996), Issue 1, pp. 37–45.
- Erika Haas: Differentiating interpretation on the upper level . In: Der Deutschunterricht 21 (1969), pp. 64–78.
- Hannah Markus: "Quick, as long as you're still dead." Ilse Aichinger's mirror story . In: reverse operations. Retrograde storytelling in literature, art and science . Edited by Mona Körte. Special issue for vol. 138 of the magazine for German philology. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag 2020, pp. 43–63.
- Katharina Meiser: The "Auschwitz Dimension" in Ilse Aichinger's "Mirror Story" . In: Weimar Contributions , Vol. 63 (2017), Issue 1, pp. 44–58.