The Eleven-Year Genesis of Erika Burkart’s “Moräne”
Erika Burkart’s debut novel, Moräne, published in 1970, emerged from an arduous eleven-year creative process that transformed a commissioned youth book into a dark, complex narrative. According to the Swiss Literary Archives, the author’s surviving manuscripts and notebooks detail her struggle to reconcile a financial commission from Carl Seelig with her own evolving artistic vision. An upcoming exhibition at the Strauhof Zürich, running from October 2, 2026, to January 3, 2027, will display these archival materials, offering a rare look at the writer’s iterative process.
A Commission Born from Crisis
In 1959, the writer and literary advocate Carl Seelig—noted for his support of Robert Walser—offered Erika Burkart a monthly stipend. At the time, Burkart was navigating a difficult personal period following the collapse of her marriage. Seelig, believing that creative labor could serve as a therapeutic outlet, commissioned Burkart to write a prose work for a younger audience.
Burkart initially approached the project with the ambition of creating a story for “children between ten and one hundred years old,” a concept she compared to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. Correspondence between the two reveals that Burkart viewed writing for children as a significant and demanding challenge, often struggling to balance the desire for clarity with the depth of her prose.
From Youth Fiction to Complex Narrative
The project shifted significantly following Seelig’s death in 1962. While early correspondence mentions a “fair copy” of the book, the archival record shows that Burkart spent years refining the text through numerous drafts and revisions. The final version of Moräne, released in 1970, departed sharply from the original intent of a youth novel.
The completed work spans nearly 400 pages and explores the tragic entanglement of two siblings, culminating in themes of incest and violence. The setting—a moraine, the debris left by a retreating glacier—mirrors the isolated home in the Swiss moorlands where Burkart lived for most of her life. While the book includes a dedication to Seelig, the finished product reflects a narrative voice that had moved beyond the constraints of the initial commission.
Archival Insights into the Writing Process
The Swiss Literary Archives house multiple boxes of manuscripts related to Moräne. Researchers have noted the dense, meticulous handwriting, which is often difficult to decipher due to frequent deletions, layered corrections, and cryptic marginal notes. These documents serve as a physical record of the “layer-by-layer” construction of the novel, documenting a decade of creative tension.
Exhibition Details: “Unlesbar”
The evolution of Burkart’s work will be featured in the exhibition “Unlesbar” (Unreadable) at the Strauhof Zürich. Organized in cooperation with the Swiss Literary Archives, the exhibition aims to highlight the labor behind the literature.
* Exhibition Dates: October 2, 2026 – January 3, 2027
* Location: Strauhof Zürich
* Focus: The archival manuscripts and working notes for Moräne
Burkart, who was born in 1922 and passed away in 2010, remains a significant figure in Swiss literature. In 2005, she became the first woman to receive the Great Schiller Prize from the Swiss Schiller Foundation for her complete body of work, which includes numerous volumes of poetry and prose that explore the natural world with subtle, multi-layered observations.