Discursivisation of Sexuality after the Sexual Act in the Märe ›Des Mönches Not‹

Abstract

The ending of the Märe ›Des Mönches Not‹ is a special one: it repeatedly eludes the narratological and poetological implications that have been formulated in research on the end of the text. This article is dedicated to this peculiarity through the theme of sexuality in this short story, and focuses on those moments in which sexuality is not concretely realised on the textual level. According to the thesis, the failure of the sexual act sought in this fairy tale opens up an experimental window in which sexuality and the sexual act itself are repeatedly actualised by means of various discursive procedures, and contrasted with the norms and values of the institution of the monastery, thus shifting certain functions of the end of the text to another end: that of sex.