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Eve's Legacy: Revisions of the Biblical Creation Myth in the Poetry of Rose Ausländer
- Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture
- University of Nebraska Press
- Volume 17, 2001
- pp. 199-223
- 10.1353/wgy.2001.0010
- Article
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The figure of Eve is a powerful and evocative poetic image. In Rose Ausländer's poetry, Eve sheds her traditional role as unwitting accomplice to the corruption of humanity and instead becomes a symbol of creation, creativity, and the power of the female poet. The poems emphasize Eve's active role in the Garden of Eden and constitute a playful revision of the Biblical creation myth. Ausländer uses Eve to access the forbidden knowledge of opposites as a poetic source and reinterprets the role of sin as a driving force in the creative process. (KvH)