Abstract:

With the end of the First World War, which coincided with the beginning of the Weimar Republic in the 20th century, the traditional patriarchal structure in German society is replaced by a social order in which women played an active role as well as men. In this way, some changes are experienced in the social roles that are imposed to the female figure with the patriarchal mentality. German writer, journalist, cinema and theater critic Erich Kästner (1899-1974) comes into prominence in German literature with his literary works for adults as well as children. He also witnesses the changes in the female figure of the Weimar Republic. For this reason, it is possible to see the traces of the change of the female figure in the author's early children's books. In this context, the scope of the study consists of examining the effects of the change in the image of woman in the Weimar Republic on motherhood in Kästner's children's book Pünktchen and Anton from the author's literary window. As a result of the analysis, it is seen that the author has revealed two different mother figures in his book. The first of these is the mother figure, who is affected by the modernization process of the Weimar Republic and neglects the traditional values in the family structure and the roles of mother as a result of this influence and the social change in the society. The second is the mother figure, who fulfills her mother's duty by preserving traditional family values and belongs to the petty-bourgeois strata. Since the traces of the social environment in which the author lived were found in the study, it seems appropriate to use sociological and text immanent methods in the analysis of the study.