Witches and Unaccomplished Mothers: Female Outcasts in Mela Hartwig’s The Witch
Witches and Unaccomplished Mothers: Female Outcasts in Mela Hartwig’s The Witch

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the construction of outcast identity in the novella The Witch (Die Hexe), which is one of the most radical literary works of the Austrian writer Mela Hartwig (1893-1967). The main character Rune is considered an outcast from birth, so her marginalized role in the intolerant and exclusionary society defines her character within her fundamentally tragic existence leading to her violent death. Her outcast position has two layers: one is societal, characterized by her belonging to the lowest societal class, whereas the second layer is gender-related, marked by female identity as the symbol of “otherness”. The crime of the main (anti)heroine, i.e. the witch, is reflected in her distinctiveness, in the deviation from the socially acceptable behavior. Hartwig depicts the world of violence, suffering and destruction and warns about the difficult position of outcasts. Even though the novella is set in the 17th century, the misogynistic and racist theories she critically discusses here are reminiscent of the Austrian society at the beginning of the 20th century.

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