In Einem Unverstandenen Gesetz’

This article argues that the law represents a significant and largely overlooked motif in Ingeborg Bachmann's work. It offers an initial overview of the role of the law in the author's writing and identifies two major patterns: in texts like Der gute Gott von Manhattan , ‘Undine geht’, and ‘Ein Schritt nach Gomorrha’, the law functions above all as a metaphor for a repressive social order. Yet others, including ‘Ein Wildermuth’ and the libretti ‘Monolog des Fürsten Myschkin’ and Der Prinz von Homburg , are at least partially about the law as an institution: they examine the nature of legal authority and explore where the limits of legal systems lie – expressing doubt, for example, about the courts’ ability to ever uncover the ‘truth' of a case. Finally, it is argued that in the Todesarten texts we can see a mixture of these two patterns: here, the law is sometimes used as a metaphor for society as a whole, but Bachmann also continues to explore jurisprudential problems such as the question of whether absolute justice can ever be achieved

Aesthetics · Economic Justice · Metaphor · Motif (music · Political science · Sociology · Theology · German Literature and Culture Studies · Historical Legal Studies and Society · Law · Linguistic research and analysis · Philosophy