Sissi’s World: The Empress Elisabeth in Memory and Myth
Sissi’s World: The Empress Elisabeth in Memory and Myth
Edited by Maura E. Hametz and Heidi Schlipphacke
“Excellent and engaging…It is a collection best read, in my opinion, from cover to cover, for this is the only way to fully appreciate how well its chapters cohere around its fragmented and protean subject.” ―Journal of Austrian Studies
Sissi's World offers a transdisciplinary approach to the study of the Habsburg Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It investigates the myths, legends, and representations across literature, art, film, and other media of one of the most popular, revered, and misunderstood female figures in European cultural history.
Sissi's World explores the cultural foundations for the endurance of the Sissi legends and the continuing fascination with the beautiful empress: a Bavarian duchess born in 1837, the longest-serving Austrian empress, and the queen of Hungary who died in 1898 at the hands of a crazed anarchist.
Despite the continuing fascination with “the beloved Sissi," the Habsburg empress, her impact, and legacy have received scant attention from scholars. This collection will go beyond the popular biographical accounts, recountings of her mythic beauty, and scattered studies of her well-known eccentricities to offer transdisciplinary cultural perspectives across art, film, fashion, history, literature, and media.
Paperback
408 pages | 30 black-and-white illustrations
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020
9 x 6 inches
ISBN 9781501361685
Austrian Royal History, Habsburg Empire