Gender, Canon and Literary History : The Changing Place of Nineteenth-Century German Women Writers (1835-1918)

It has been shown that the total number of women who published in German in the 18th and 19th centuries was approximately 3,500, but even by 1918 only a few of them were known. The reason for this lies in the selection processes to which the authors have been subjected, and it is this selection process that is the focus of the research here presented. The selection criteria have not simply been gender-based but have had much to do with the urgent quest for establishing a German Nation State in 1848 and beyond. Prutz, Gottschall, Kreyßig and others found it necessary to use literary historiography, which had been established by 1835, in order to construct an ideal of ‘Germanness’ at a time when a political unity remained absent, and they wove women writers into this plot. After unification in 1872, this kind of weaving seemed to have become less pressing, and other discourses came to the fore, especially those revolving round femininity vs. masculinity, and races. The study of the processes at work here will enhance current debates about the literary canon by tracing its evolution and identifying the factors which came to determine the visibility or obscurity of particular authors and texts. The focus will be on a number of case studies, but, instead of isolating questions of gender, __Gender, Canon and Literary History__ will discuss the broader cultural context. Introduction 1 Discourses of German Femininity in the Long Nineteenth Century 1.1 A review of the conceptualization of women’s marginalization and agency 1.2 The rise of discourses of power and dominance 1.3 Case Studies: Positioning exercises in the university in Wilhelm Scherer, August Sauer and Ludwig Geiger’s writings on women 1.3.1 August Sauer, defender of Germanness at the South Eastern margins of the German Empire 1.3.2 An integrative force in the dying Habsburg Empire: Sauer’s Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach 1.3.3 Ludwig Geiger, a German scholar of Jewish denomination in Berlin 1.3.4 Bettina von Arnim as Geiger’s guarantor of German-Jewish understanding 1.3.5 Wilhelm Scherer’s defence of Germanness on the western margins of the German Empire 1.3.6 Presenting a female model for the German cultured classes: Wilhelm Scherer’s “Caroline” 1.4 Anti-Semitism and women: female, sick, mad, dangerous and Jewish vs. strong, male, rational and German 1.5 Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach on woman’s otherness 1.6 Conclusion 2 Women’s Writing and German Femininity in Literary Histories: Georg Gottfried Gervinus, Rudolph Gottschall and August Vilmar 2.1 Women’s position in early literary histories: Gervinus’ fear of a female epidemic 2.2 Case Study: absence of gender stereotyping and the politics of the 1840s in Rudolph Gottschall’s early poems 2.3 The introduction of gender in Gottschall’s Deutsche Nationallitteratur 2.4 The problem with Romantic women: August Vilmar and Rudolph Gottschall 2.5 Conclusion 3 The Making of Romantic and Post-Romantic Women Writers in German Literary History: Rahel Varnhagen, Bettina von Arnim and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff 3.1 Shifting positions of women in Gottschall’s German literary history project 3.2 Of gnomes and Norns: Bettina von Arnim and Rahel Varnhagen as creative forces in Germany in Gottschall’s literary history project 1855 to 1902 3.3 A wild girl and her master: Bettina von Arnim’s role in the nationhood project of August Vilmar, Wilhelm Scherer and Julian Schmidt 3.4 Sick and lying: Julian Schmidt’s dissociation of Rahel Varnhagen from Goethe 3.5 A guarantor of German authenticity: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff in Gottschall and Vilmar 3.6 Conclusion 4 Emancipation as a National Concern: Fanny Lewald and Louise Aston in German Literary History 4.1 The wrong kind of emancipation: the undoing of Louise Aston in Gottschall’s literary history project 4.2 “Die Freidenkerin aus der Stadt der reinen Vernunft”: the making of Fanny Lewald in Gottschall’s literary history project 4.3 Preserving Fanny Lewald for posterity in Gottschall’s literary history project after German Unification 4.4 Women’s ways to national harmony: a comparison of Fanny Lewald in Julian Schmidt and Friedrich Kreyßig 4.5 Conclusion 5 Gender Dichotomy and Cultural Continuities in Portraits of Women 5.1 The significance of the genre of portraits 5.2 Romantic and post-Romantic ‘Frauenbilder’: an introduction 5.3 Canonizing Bettina von Arnim 5.3.1 “A modern Mignon” and her grandfather 5.3.2 From Berlin to Rome and from nature to art 5.4 Domesticating Rahel Varnhagen 5.4.1 A woman on the threshold to a new world 5.4.2 Sage, witch or demon? Taming Rahel Varnhagen 5.4.3 Women writers on Rahel Varnhagen: Little woman or freedom fighter? 5.4.4 Ellen Key’s Rahel Varnhagen and the provocation of the German order 5.5 Nationalizing Dorothea Schlegel and Fanny Lewald 5.5.1 At the German hearth: Ludwig Geiger on Dorothea Schlegel 5.5.2 Another Goethe-prophet: Geiger on Fanny Lewald 5.6 Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography

It has been shown that the total number of women who published in German in the 18th and 19th centuries was approximately 3,500, but even by 1918 only a few of them were known. The reason for this lies in the selection processes to which the authors have been subjected, and it is this selection process that is the focus ofthe research here presented.

The selection criteria have not simply been gender-based but have had much to do with the urgent quest for establishing a German Nation State in 1848 and beyond. Prutz, Gottschall, Kreyßig and others found it necessary to use literary historiography, which had been established by 1835, in order to construct an ideal of ‘Germanness’ at a time when a political unity remained absent, and they wove women writers into this plot. After unification in 1872, this kind of weaving seemed to have become less pressing, and other discourses came to the fore, especially those revolving round femininity vs. masculinity, and races.

The study of the processes at work here will enhance current debates about the literary canon by tracing its evolution and identifying the factors which came to determine the visibility or obscurity of particular authors and texts. The focus will be on a number of case studies, but, instead of isolating questions of gender, Gender, Canon and Literary History will discuss the broader cultural context.

It has been shown that the total number of women who published in German in the 18th and 19th centuries was approximately 3,500, but even by 1918 only a few of them were known. The reason for this lies in the selection processes to which the authors have been subjected, and it is this selection process that is the focus of the research here presented. Gender, Canon and Literary History investigates the reception of 19th-century women's writing in German literary histories by way of case studies. It fills a longstanding gap both in the study of gender and literary history. The case studies concentrate on the reception of women writing in the Age of Romanticism (e.g., Rahel Varnhagen) as well as women who were inspired to write by the German Revolution (e.g., Fanny Lewald) Gender, Canon and Literary History investigates the reception of 19th-century women's writing in German literary histories by way of case studies. It fills a long standing gap both in the study of gender and literary history. The case studies concentrate on the reception of women writing in the Age of Romanticism (e.g., Rahel Varnhagen) as well as women who were inspired to write by the German Revolution (e.g., Fanny Lewald)