Women, the Novel, and the German Nation 1771–1871
Domestic Fiction in the Fatherland

A 1998 survey in English of novels by German women in the period 1771–1871, and their role in shaping attitudes.

Todd Kontje (Author)

9780521631105, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 October 1998

260 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.55 kg

"an encompassing account of women writers during the 19th century..." Germanic Notes and Reviews

In this 1998 book, Todd Kontje surveys novels by German women over the one-hundred-year period that stretches from the beginnings of a German national literature to the founding of its nation-state. Introducing readers to the lives and works of fourteen women writers of the period, he shows the historical and thematic coherence of a body of fiction by women that has been obscured by traditional literary histories. He explores ways in which novels about traditionally feminine domestic concerns also comment on patriarchal politics in the German fatherland. Finally, he argues that we must view the history of the German novel in the context of both the history of sexuality and the rise of German nationalism, and that novels by German women, often marginalized or trivialized, played a central role in shaping attitudes toward class, gender and the nation.

1. Introduction: women, the novel, and the German nation
2. The emergence of German domestic fiction
3. German women respond to the French Revolution
4. Liberation's aftermath: the early restoration
5. Feminists in the Vormärz
6. Eugene Marlitt: the art of liberal compromise
Notes
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]