"Das Ewig Weibliche" Up to Date: Gegenkultur und Mutterrecht in Otto F. Walters Roman Die Verwilderung

The dialectics of matriarchy and modernity constitute one of the most powerful discourses in 20th century civilization and its diverse discontents. Johann Jacob Bachofen's Das Mutterrecht (1861) provided the founding text for modernity's anti-patriarchal (r-)evolution, influencing in turn a variety of theory formations, including Marxism, psychoanalysis, and feminism. However, matriarchal mythography had its most creative impact on literary imagination of modern writers from Hesse and Thomas Mann to Frisch and Dürrenmatt. This essay traces the unfinished project of matriarchy and modernity by delineating it in Otto F. Walter's Zeitroman Die Verwilderung (1977), illuminating its matriarchal matrix from three distinctive perspectives. First, through its theorectical parameters, including reception theory and postmodern aesthetics, second, from the narrative perspective of plot and character development, and third, with regard to its symbolic configurations. All three literary levels are intricately interwined with the contemporary counter-culture of the 68 generation, its politics and philosophies, ranging from student revolt and Critical Theory to the feminist deconstruction of patriarchy. (Verlag).