The Water under the Bridge: Tzveta Sofronieva's Der alte Mann, das Meer, die Frau

Tzveta Sofronieva is a poet who writes both in her native language of Bulgarian and in her adopted language of German. Her poetry rejects the notion that it should function as a 'bridge' between cultures, an expectation that arises because of her status as a Chamisso-prize-winning exophonic writer. This essay argues that Sofronieva's recent German poetry is preoccupied with the water under the bridge rather than with the bridge itself: with water as a feminist, non-territorial space; with water as language, water as literature. The chapter focuses its discussion on the poem Der alte Mann, das Meer, die Frau (The old man, the sea, the woman, 2007), Sofronieva's feminist retelling of Ernest Hemingway's novella The Old Man and the Sea (1952).