Undine geht

Undine geht, a prose text by Ingeborg Bachmann, published in 1961 as the last story in her cycle Das dreißigste Jahr. The title alludes to Undine's taking leave of her traditional role by rejecting patriarchal exploitation as represented in the figure of Hans. Undine herself is conceived, so Ingeborg Bachmann suggests, as representing art; her monologue turns on the dichotomy between (male) reason and (female) feeling, a major theme in this author's work. It describes the loss of a utopian ideal which vanishes as Undine submerges, though the longing persists; this is hinted at by the final voice attempting to lure her back: ‘Come’.