Repräsentationen der Kaiserin Elisabeth von Österreich nach dem Ende des Habsburgerreiches. Eine struktur-funktionale Untersuchung mythisierender Filmdarstellungen

By tracing the process of the evolving myth surrounding the empress Elisabeth of Austria since her death one would very likely find an almost continuous sinusoidal curve as a result. The aim of the thesis is to explore the question which mediating sociopolitical functions the myth fullfils and where its value lies within the national and historical myth systems (the ones of Austria and also Prussia/Germany) by analysing audio-visual media, especially films. Since the representations of the Empress during the 20. century have been mainly manifested within popular culture, printed media, like e.g. newspapers, magazines, biograhies will also be considered for the analysis as well as theatrical plays like operas and musical comedies.
The thesis stresses that the myth of Empress Elizabeth of Austria can be seen as a set of essential kernels, in structuralism theory called ‚mythemes’, that can constantly get reassembled and re-told. The mythemes and the actualizations of the myth itself are to be elaborated as well as its different cultural functionalisations at different times by diachronical and a synchronical readings. The thesis is trying to fill the gap of the frequently stated absence of female figures within the field of myth research and points out functions of a contemporary myth and its different appearances. Beyond that those procedures and strategies of media will be addressed that lead a long constituted myth into serving as a collective character or figure which can continously be applicated into new thematic contexts.
The main proposition of the thesis is that the representations of Empress Elizabeth of Austria during the 20th century have gotten adjusted to the sociocultural contexts of the particular time they have appeared in. The character of the Empress has therefore been utilized as a carrier for different ideologies, e.g. the idea of the multiethnic state of the Habsburgian Empire, as well as the national socialists idea of a the ethnic community, the ‚Volksgemeinschaft’. The representations also adjust to altering female stererotypes and even role models like e.g. the ideal wife or in the ending 20th century the progressive feminist.