Journal article 13 views
Our Woman in Rome: Ingeborg Bachmann’s Römische Reportagen and the Body on the Beach.
Julian Preece 
Komodo 21, Volume: 19
Swansea University Author:
Julian Preece
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Abstract
Ingeborg Bachmann’s Römische Reportagen (Reports from Rome), broadcast on Radio Bremen under the pseudonym Ruth Keller from 1954-55, were published in 1998. Regarded as a functional form of writing, however, that does not belong to her oeuvre proper, the reports have not attracted the attention of s...
| Published in: | Komodo 21 |
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| ISSN: | 2608-6115 |
| Published: |
2024
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67705 |
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| Abstract: |
Ingeborg Bachmann’s Römische Reportagen (Reports from Rome), broadcast on Radio Bremen under the pseudonym Ruth Keller from 1954-55, were published in 1998. Regarded as a functional form of writing, however, that does not belong to her oeuvre proper, the reports have not attracted the attention of scholars. One topic predominates: the Montesi Affair, so called after a young woman whose near-naked body was washed up on a beach near Rome, seemingly a casualty of a sex party involving powerful men. Bachmann alias Keller treated the affair as public melodrama and in the name of anticommunism aligned her reportage with that of the Italian state, which sought to live down the scandal. This paper argues that Montesi nevertheless leaves its imprint on Bachmann’s masterpiece Malina (1971), a novel about a woman’s murder, and that Bachmann’s functional journalism involved adopting a male persona, akin to the strategy by the novel’s anonymous narrator. |
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| Keywords: |
foreign correspondent, Cold War journalism, radio reportage, Montesi Affair, Bachmann and Italy |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |