GENDER, MIGRATION, AND MAGICAL NATURALISM IN EDGAR REITZ'S DIE ANDERE HEIMAT (2013)

A gendered understanding of the concept of Heimat exposes difficulties with gender representation in Heimat film and writing in both the traditional and critical modes. Women can be so closely aligned with the construction or even embodiment of the Heimat that their own access to it is in doubt. Reitz's Heimat (1984) was criticised as well as celebrated for its representation of the maternal Heimat constructed by Maria seemingly for the benefit of her menfolk who are able to transcend the Heimat at will and then return, while she remains stuck in the Heimat realm. Reitz's 'Vormarz' prequel Die andere Heimat (2013) on the face of it presents another narrative of a mother and her sons with a fraternal and mirrored gender pattern of Heimat production, as well as dealing with the complexities of leaving and remaining in the Heimat. In engaging both with current debates on the intersection of Heimat discourse and migration, and with the birth of the Heimat movement, this essay 'bookends' the core period addressed in this special number, as it looks forwards and backwards to historical and conceptual concerns that anchor the discussions of Heimat texts from 1871-1933.