Das „blaue Mittelmeer“ in Marie Luise Kaschnitz’ Kurzgeschichten ,Lange Schatten‘, ,Am Circeo‘ und ,Eines Mittags, Mitte Juni‘ (1960)

The region of the Mediterranean and its cultures are central themes in the writings of Marie Luise Kaschnitz, and from the mid-1920 they shaped her poetry as well as her novels ‘Liebe beginnt’ (1933) and ‘Elissa’ (1937). In her post-war texts – short stories, radio plays, essays, notes, and poems – the Mediterranean world became crucially important; this reflected her husband’s historical-cultural work and led the couple to undertake several long journeys to Italy, (former) Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, and North Africa. Among the landscapes that stimulated Marie Luise Kaschnitz’s creative work, the legendary Monte Circeo on the Tyrrhenian coast repeatedly emerged as a prominent element. The article intends to show what this place meant for the author’s private life, also focusing on how she depicted it in three short stories written in 1960: ‘Lange Schatten’, ‘Am Circeo’, and ‘Eines Mittags, Mitte Juni’.