Muret/Sanders

bound, subjugated, tied up women, who can, would want, want, or aspire to step out of their tradition-bound roles

source:

BBC News | TALKING POINT | Are men trapped in outdated roles? - 7 Nov 2000 ... Women have begun ***to step out of their traditional roles*** as mothers ..... look (superficially) its reverse: women subjugating their daughters ...
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/988433.stm - 107k -

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Note added at 24 mins (2009-04-04 18:46:02 GMT)
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two additional sources:

[PDF] Gender Matters in The Merry Wives of Windsor - : PDF/Adobe Acrobat - HTML
a community; gender is bound by a community’s sense of what is desirable conduct for a ... ***the “shrew” served to discourage women from stepping out of their assigned roles***. ... The women’s wit catches men out while simultaneously upholding ... In what sense have the wives “failed” in their traditional gender roles? ...
tma.byu.edu/fileadmin/tma/user_files/Production_History/Study_Guides-PH/MerryWivesSG.pdf -

LEADER Magazine: Spring Break Jungle Escape - Part of the Outward Bound school tradition is not to give girls roles during ... I explained that their role in the team was first to take care of themselves. ... ***We can step out of our leadership shoes and encourage girls to fill them***. ...
www.girlscouts.org/for_adults/leader_magazine/2005_fall/spr... - 33k -

Ich verstehe "heraustreten" eher so, dass die dargestellten Personen aus der Skulptur, Zeichnung usw. heraustreten, sozusagen zum Leben erweckt werden, wenn der Betrachter das will und sich auf ihre Geschichte/ihr Schicksal einlassen möchte.

.... Dennoch sind sie nicht hermetisch in sich geschlossen, sondern fließen in die Welt hinaus. Man spürt die innere Kraft der Figuren mit der sie bestrebt, sind sich im Außen zu verorten. ....
http://www.wolfhowl.de/kunst_barlach.htm

Seine Skulpturen sind Persönlichkeiten. In ihren Gesichtern spiegelt sich das Leben wieder, das sie führen, das sie leiden, das sie freut.
Versteht man die Zeit ihrer Entstehung, findet man einen Zugang zu der Schwere ihres Ausdrucks.
Jedoch gewinnt man stets den Ausdrucks, dass Barlach seine Figuren über ihre Gegenwart hinauswachsen lässt.
Man mag meinen, sie bleiben nicht stehen um ihr Schicksal zu beklagen, sie schauen still und intensiv in eine NEUE ZEIT.
Es ist Barlach eine Sehnsucht zu eigen, die den Betrachter mit einbezieht. Wie kein anderer sucht er die Perspektive, den anderen Blickwinkel auf für das Leben, das unwiederruflich kommen wird.
Im Bewußtsein ihrer Gegenwart hören die Menschen in die NEUE ZEIT hinaus. Barlachs Figuren sind Hörende, denn das Hören ist für den Künstler die vornehmste menschliche Fähigkeit. Denn im Lauschen nehmen wir das kommende wahr und können uns darauf einstellen, ihm entgegentreten oder es in uns aufnehmen.
http://www.kirchengemeinde-schalke.de/07a.htm

a forceful stepping forward, unchain, untangling, extricating, all mirrored in the expressiveness of the men and women of his art is how I understand it in this context. Should have a lot to do with the forcefulness and energy of his figures. The only problem is that heraustreten sounds less forceful, but I do not think it simply means to take a couple of steps forward, especially because of what comes before, the description of the shackled, the tied maybe chained women. I would use a strong, emphatic word. I like your "escape".
Mirrored in the form and thus also figuratively very forceful wish, want, or real action.


http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/53487/Ernst-Barlac...

Barlach studied art in Hamburg, Germany, and later in Dresden and Paris. Influenced early in his career by Jugendstil, Germany’s Art Nouveau style, he vacillated between pursuing sculpture and the decorative arts. In 1906 he traveled to Russia, where the strong bodies and expressive faces of the peasants stimulated his commitment to sculpture and to the development of his mature style, which characteristically features bulky, monumental figures in heavy drapery. In works such as The Solitary One (1911), details of the figure are eliminated and the massive forms seem ready to explode with bound energy. Barlach achieved a rough-hewn quality by preferring wood, the material used in late Gothic sculpture.


http://www.archive.org/stream/sculptureoftoday002267mbp/scul...
Ernst Barlach / character and force

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Note added at 2 hrs (2009-04-04 20:44:20 GMT)
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or without the "from" for free/liberate themselves

another option
breaking through


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Note added at 2 hrs (2009-04-04 20:50:18 GMT)
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metaphorically speaking, I would not shy away from free..escape..etc.
:)

Sich aus einer Situation herauswinden oder fliehen.