At the Junction of Desire and Obligation: Analyzing Stefan Zweig’s Letter from an Unknown Woman and Its Two Adaptations

Abstract

Published in 1922, Stefan Zweig’s novella Letter from an Unknown Woman immortalizes the polarization of gender attributes. The depiction of a male writer who does not want a relationship to tie him down forms a sharp contrast with that of his ardent admirer, who silently takes up her maternal obligation and raises their child alone. This story has had several media adaptations. The first adaptation selected for discussion is an American film directed by Max Ophüls in 1948. This version intensifies both social and individual expectations of the behaviors of the two genders. More than half a century later, in 2004, a Chinese film adaptation directed by Xu Jinglei was released. This adaptation incorporates social issues unique to China in the 1920s to 1940s to highlight the tragic choices of a woman who remains faithful to the man whom she loves, regardless of his faults. In these three cultural products, created at different times and against different backgrounds, the “unknown woman” is given alternatives at various stages of her life, which mark how the life of a woman can be defined. This chapter explores how the desire of the “unknown woman” alters with changes in her identity in each of these three cultural products, seeking to analyze the linkage between the corresponding social and cultural contexts and individuals’ choices in life.