Blaubart und Pygmalion?

This paper shows how two very different complexes of motifs, Pygmalion and Bluebeard, have been combined as poetological figures of reflection in nineteenth century German-language literature - and how this happens precisely because of their antagonistic design: whereas Pygmalion's principle of generation implies the animation of the work of art (which is encoded as female) in its entirety, Bluebeard's blood chamber, where the dead women are stored, can be seen as a museum space; the dead (dismembered) women appear as 'exhibits' of his art of killing. Using the examples of F.W. Hackländer's and E. Marlitt's Bluebeard tales, it will be shown how the difference between art and entertainment is inscribed in this combination of concepts of authorship. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]