The Saga of Melitta Urbancic
ABSTRACT: Very few Jews fleeing from the Holocaust in Central Europe between 1937 and 1945 managed to reach the safety of the shores of Iceland, which was not a major player in this catastrophic event, but was also not a non-participant. Melitta Urbancic, a Viennese Jewish author and actress, was on...
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Language: | English French |
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University of Alberta Library
2017
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan140 https://doaj.org/article/e003eb390f7142aa96311f1a95ed5202 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:e003eb390f7142aa96311f1a95ed5202 2023-07-02T03:32:42+02:00 The Saga of Melitta Urbancic Peter Stenberg 2017-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan140 https://doaj.org/article/e003eb390f7142aa96311f1a95ed5202 EN FR eng fre University of Alberta Library https://scancan.net/index.php/scancan/article/view/140 https://doaj.org/toc/0823-1796 https://doaj.org/toc/2816-5187 doi:10.29173/scancan140 0823-1796 2816-5187 https://doaj.org/article/e003eb390f7142aa96311f1a95ed5202 Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, Vol 24 (2017) History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia DL1-1180 Language and Literature P article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan140 2023-06-11T00:34:56Z ABSTRACT: Very few Jews fleeing from the Holocaust in Central Europe between 1937 and 1945 managed to reach the safety of the shores of Iceland, which was not a major player in this catastrophic event, but was also not a non-participant. Melitta Urbancic, a Viennese Jewish author and actress, was one of these very few. Under dramatic circumstances, she was allowed to settle in Iceland in late 1938, where she remained for the rest of her long life. As we now know, when she died in Reykjavík in 1984 she left behind a voluminous oeuvre of German-language poetry, a selection of which appeared in 2014 in the bilingual Icelandic-German book Frá hjara veraldar. Vom Rand der Welt, edited by Gauti Kristmannsson, which contains the only works of Melitta Urbancic that are in print in any language. This review article presents the adventurous saga of Melitta Urbancic, includes some of her poems in German and in English translation, and looks at the special quality of her relationship to Iceland, her writing style, and the content of the poetry as it changed from that of a traumatized refugee in a very foreign environment to someone who gradually found a new home. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Reykjavík Reykjavík Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Reykjavík Scandinavian-Canadian Studies 24 210 225 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English French |
topic |
History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia DL1-1180 Language and Literature P |
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History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia DL1-1180 Language and Literature P Peter Stenberg The Saga of Melitta Urbancic |
topic_facet |
History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia DL1-1180 Language and Literature P |
description |
ABSTRACT: Very few Jews fleeing from the Holocaust in Central Europe between 1937 and 1945 managed to reach the safety of the shores of Iceland, which was not a major player in this catastrophic event, but was also not a non-participant. Melitta Urbancic, a Viennese Jewish author and actress, was one of these very few. Under dramatic circumstances, she was allowed to settle in Iceland in late 1938, where she remained for the rest of her long life. As we now know, when she died in Reykjavík in 1984 she left behind a voluminous oeuvre of German-language poetry, a selection of which appeared in 2014 in the bilingual Icelandic-German book Frá hjara veraldar. Vom Rand der Welt, edited by Gauti Kristmannsson, which contains the only works of Melitta Urbancic that are in print in any language. This review article presents the adventurous saga of Melitta Urbancic, includes some of her poems in German and in English translation, and looks at the special quality of her relationship to Iceland, her writing style, and the content of the poetry as it changed from that of a traumatized refugee in a very foreign environment to someone who gradually found a new home. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Peter Stenberg |
author_facet |
Peter Stenberg |
author_sort |
Peter Stenberg |
title |
The Saga of Melitta Urbancic |
title_short |
The Saga of Melitta Urbancic |
title_full |
The Saga of Melitta Urbancic |
title_fullStr |
The Saga of Melitta Urbancic |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Saga of Melitta Urbancic |
title_sort |
saga of melitta urbancic |
publisher |
University of Alberta Library |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan140 https://doaj.org/article/e003eb390f7142aa96311f1a95ed5202 |
geographic |
Reykjavík |
geographic_facet |
Reykjavík |
genre |
Iceland Reykjavík Reykjavík |
genre_facet |
Iceland Reykjavík Reykjavík |
op_source |
Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, Vol 24 (2017) |
op_relation |
https://scancan.net/index.php/scancan/article/view/140 https://doaj.org/toc/0823-1796 https://doaj.org/toc/2816-5187 doi:10.29173/scancan140 0823-1796 2816-5187 https://doaj.org/article/e003eb390f7142aa96311f1a95ed5202 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan140 |
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Scandinavian-Canadian Studies |
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24 |
container_start_page |
210 |
op_container_end_page |
225 |
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1770272341592375296 |