Venus in fur

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Ukrainian-language edition of Venus in Fur
Letter from Sacher-Masoch with a sketch of Venus in fur, Leipzig 1883

Venus in Pelz is a novella by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch from 1870 and his most famous work, which is strongly inspired by his own life. It is part of his large-scale cycle of novels "The Legacy of Cain", which was not completed. The first part on the subject of “Love”, which appeared in two volumes, contains the story “The Wanderer”, which was conceived as a prologue for the entire cycle of novels, and the preface by the critic Ferdinand Kürnberger to “Don Juan of Kolomea”, “The Capitulant” and “ Moon night ". The second volume published “The Love of Plato”, “Venus in Furs” and “Marzella or the fairy tale of happiness”. Sacher-Masoch describes the extreme roller coaster of emotions that the " slave " Severin experiences through his mistress Wanda, who in her feminine-dominant role as Venus in fur pushes him to his physical and mental limits, only to leave him - because of own unsatisfied longing for submission or to cure him of his masochism .

action

The protagonist of the action is Severin von Kusiemski, who gives his experiences to a friend to read in the form of a manuscript. The trigger for this plot is a dream of this friend, in which a Greek Venus freezes in the Christian north and has to wrap himself in furs, and a painting in Severin's room that shows him at a young age in a humble posture at the feet of a Venus in fur.

As a young man at the age of 16, Severin met the young and rich widow Wanda von Dunajew in a Carpathian bath , whose beauty and resemblance to the Greek Venus, who had been adored since childhood, fascinated him. However, Wanda does not want to accept Severin's marriage proposal and instead suggests a one-year probationary period. After several requests from Severin, Wanda agrees to be his mistress, whereupon Severin is transformed into her slave Gregor after leaving the Carpathian baths. Wanda now completely fulfills Severin's / Gregor's fantasy of a beautiful woman who despotic subjugates her slave and tortures her physically and psychologically (for no reason). But she keeps falling out of her role and is the loving, tender lover of Severin / Gregor by the hour. He is less and less able to deal with Wanda's admirers, but since he is contractually bound to Wanda, he finds no other way out of his situation than to kill himself, which he does not have the heart to do. Despite his suffering from the situation, Severin / Gregor is still trapped in his masochistic fantasies.

Only when Wanda betrays him and leaves her sadistic lover, the Greek, to be whipped and looks on with a laugh, does Severin seem "cured". He returns to the father's estate and resumes his previous life. In his relationship with women he is now the ruler and subjugator, since he considers an equal coexistence of men and women to be excluded as long as women are not socially equal to men in terms of education and work.

masochism

The term masochism , which Richard von Krafft-Ebing first introduced into psychology, goes back to Venus in fur and is derived from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's surname.

Quote

"But morality?"

“That woman, as nature created and as man is currently bringing up, is his enemy and can only be his slave or his despot, but never his companion. It can only be this when it is equal to him in rights, when it is equal to him through education and work. "

"You only want to be mine under certain conditions, while I am unconditionally yours."

indexing

The work was indexed in 1958 by the Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to minors, i. H. placed on the list of writings harmful to minors. It is now freely available in stores again. There are no sexual descriptions in the book. Nudity is hardly an issue either, the few scenes are quite harmless: Wanda changing clothes or bathing. The censorship presumably took place only because of the intense representation of the pleasure gained through whipping and submission.

Adaptations

The novella has so far been adapted for the film five times. In 1969 it was filmed by the erotic director Jesus Franco with Klaus Kinski in a leading role. In the same year she also filmed director Massimo Dallamano with Laura Antonelli . A film adaptation by Joseph Marzano followed in 1967 . In 1994 a film was made by Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyferth . Roman Polanski's film Venus in Fur ( La Vénus à la fourrure ), based on the play Venus in Fur by David Ives , premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in May 2013 .

In addition, the rock formation The Velvet Underground released a song of the same name, written by Lou Reed ( Venus in Furs ) on their first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico , released in 1967 , the text of which clearly refers to the novel.

In 1984, Guido Crepax adapted the book as a comic entitled Venere in pelliccia , which was published by Olympia Press in Milan. This was published in 1992 in German by Schreiber und Leser .

In 2005 Bela B. recorded a setting of the novella Venus im Pelz as an audio book together with the actress Catherine Flemming .

In 2007 Amy May, aka Paris Motel , released a song called After Wanda on her album In the Salpêtrière , which follows the end of the novel.

2009 - Im Pelz , a play by Katharina Schmitt based on motifs by Sacher-Masoch; the premiere was at the Leipzig theater .

2010 - Venus in Fur , a stage play by David Ives for two people, in which an adaptation of the novella for the theater is thematized, which was premiered in German in 2013 at the Renaissance-Theater Berlin .

2017 - Venus in Fur , English-language performance of the play by David Ives of the English Theater Leipzig in the Neues Schauspiel with Madlen Meyer and Peter Seaton-Clark .

expenditure

  • Leopold von Sacher-Masoch: Venus in fur. In: Ders .: The Legacy of Cain. First part. Love. Second volume. Cotta, Stuttgart 1870, pp. 121-368 (first edition).
  • Carlo Di Mascio, Masoch sovversivo. Cinque studi su Venus in fur , Firenze, Phasar Edizioni, 2018. ISBN 978-88-6358-488-2

Web links

Commons : Venus in Fur  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Writer: Hard of hearing. In: Der Spiegel. 5/1986.
  2. ^ Andreas Borcholte: Film Festival in Cannes: Venus and Vampires. In: Spiegel online . May 25, 2013. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  3. ^ TV documentary about Venus in Pelz by Roman Polanski, Arte 2013
  4. ↑ Venus in Furs lyrics
  5. ↑ Neues Schauspiel Leipzig and Englisches Theater Leipzig present Venus in Fur