Can Heroes Be Outsiders? - Narratives of the Feminine in the Novel "Group Portrait with a Lady" by Heinrich Böll and in the Film with Romy Schneider

Abstract

This paper raises the question of whether traditional narratives and cinematic productions serve a patriarchal expectation. For this purpose, the first step is to confront the definition of heroic poetry with a feminist perspective. While the hero must represent the typology of possibilities of human action, the heroine additionally serves the narrative of auctorial 'femininity'. Using the novel "Gruppenbild mit Dame" as an example, the article shows how Heinrich Böll democratizes the process. The representation reflects how a group negotiates an image of women. At the same time, the character's voice is almost entirely absent throughout the narrative. In this sense, the film version featuring Romy Schneider demonstrates how human action can counteract bourgeois expectations.