The Witch in His Head: Rupturing the Patriarchal Discourse in Eichendorff's Ballad "Waldgespräch"

Abstract

Abstract:This article offers a gender-conscious reading of Joseph von Eichendorff's famous ballad "Waldgespräch" by highlighting the emancipatory elements embedded in the author's changes to Clemens Brentano's original tale of Lore Lay. When read "against the grain," the conversation in the ballad can be viewed as transcribing two opposing discourses: one that encodes hegemonic masculinity by means of a "rational" dualist worldview, and another that disrupts said dominant logic by "conjuring up" an alternative subjectivity to resist patriarchal logocentrism. Furthermore, the article proposes, Eichendorff's Lorelay embodies patriarchy's suppressed Other, meaning that the hunter's supposed death in the forest signifies a victory of the Other.