Women Peasant Poets in Eighteenth-Century England, Scotland, and Germany: Milkmaids on Parnassus (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture, 1)

This is the first comparative study of a highly unlikely group of authors: eighteenth-century women peasants in England, Scotland, and Germany, women who, as a rule, received little or no formal education and lived by manual labor, many of them in dire poverty. Among them are the English washerwoman Mary Collier, the English domestic servants Elizabeth Hands and Molly Leapor, the German cowherd Anna Louisa Karsch, the Scottish diarywoman Janet Little, the Scottish domestic servant Christian Milne, and the English milkmaid Ann Cromartie Yearsley. Their literature is here linked with one of the major eighteenth-century aesthetic trends in all three countries, the Natural Genius craze, which culminated in highland primitivism in Scotland and England, and in the Sturm und Drang in Germany. Kord's analysis of the peasant women's works and the bourgeois response enables us to find new answers to questions that have centrally influenced our thinking about what makes art Art. Kord's book provides a fresh look at some of this fascinating literature, and at the roles and attitudes of the lower classes and of women in the Art world of the day. It also advances a revolutionary thesis: that the eighteenth-century bourgeoisie established itself as the dominant cultural class not primarily, as is commonly held, in opposition to aristocratic culture, but more importantly through its dissociation from and suppression of lower-class art forms. SUSANNE KORD is Professor and Head of the Department of German at University College London. Her book Little Detours: The Letters and Plays of Luise Gottsched was published by Camden House in 2000. a href="http://www.camden-house.com/skord.doc" target="_blank">Click here to read an interview with Susanne Kord/a> (Word document 25KB) This Is The First Comparative Study Of A Highly Unlikely Group Of Authors: Eighteenth-century Women Peasants In England, Scotland, And Germany, Women Who, As A Rule, Received Little Or No Formal Education And Lived By Manual Labor, Many Of Them In Dire Poverty. Among Them Are The English Washerwoman Mary Collier, The English Domestic Servants Elizabeth Hands And Molly Leapor, The German Cowherd Anna Louisa Karsch, The Scottish Diarywoman Janet Little, The Scottish Domestic Servant Christian Milne, And The English Milkmaid Ann Cromartie Yearsley. Their Literature Is Here Linked With One Of The Major Eighteenth-century Aesthetic Trends In All Three Countries, The Natural Genius Craze, Which Culminated In Highland Primitivism In Scotland And England, And In The Sturm Und Drang In Germany.--jacket. Introduction: Aesthetic Evasions And Social Consequences -- 1. Back To Nature: Bourgeois Aesthetic Theory And Lower-class Poetic Practice -- Visionaries: The Artist As Servant, God, Or Vegetable -- Window Shoppers: The Servant As Artist -- 2. Wild And The Civilized: Poet Making -- Wages Of Suffering And The Wages Of Sin: Class Issues And Literary Patronage -- Menial Maids, With No Release From Toil: Some Paradigms -- The Poet's Silence Is The Triumph Of Taste: The Case Of Anna Louisa Karsch -- Drive Your Cows From The Foot Of Parnassus: The Case Of Ann Yearsley -- 3. Life As The Work: Counterfeit Confessions, Bogus Biographies, Literary Lives -- Arcadian Shepherdesses And Toiling Peasants: On Poetry And Poverty -- German Sappho: Controversies Surrounding A Legend -- Man Or A Mother? Anna Louisa Karsch Forgets Her Gender -- Beauty And The Beasts: Fairy Tale Imagery -- Unhappy Endings: Biographical Punishment -- 4. Literature Of Labor: Poetic Images Of Country Life -- Physical Labor And Poetic Idleness -- Rural Realities I: Pastoral Landscapes And Village Scenes -- Rural Realities Ii: The Rustic At Work -- Pastorals And Power: Social And Aesthetic Considerations -- 5. Inspired By Nature, Inspired By Love: Two Poets On Poetic Inspiration -- Rural Muse: On Nature Inspiration And Book Learning -- Under Love's Spell: Authors And Readers -- 6. Of Patrons And Critics: Reading The Bourgeois Reader -- Reading The Reader: Of Critics And Posterity -- Castle-building: Of Patrons And Their Empty Promises -- Conclusion: On The Gender And Class Of Art -- App.: Short Biographies Of Women Peasant Poets. Susanne Kord. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [273]-314) And Index. First comparative study of an unlikely group of authors: 18th-century women peasants.This is the first comparative study of a highly unlikely group of authors: eighteenth-century women peasants in England, Scotland, and Germany, women who, as a rule, received little or no formal education and lived by manual labor, many of them in dire poverty. Among them are the English washerwoman Mary Collier, the English domestic servants Elizabeth Hands and Molly Leapor, the German cowherd Anna Louisa Karsch, the Scottish diarywoman Janet Little, theScottish domestic servant Christian Milne, and the English milkmaid Ann Cromartie Yearsley. Their literature is here linked with one of the major eighteenth-century aesthetic trends in all three countries, the Natural Genius craze, which culminated in highland primitivism in Scotland and England, and in the Sturm und Drang in Germany. Kord's analysis of the peasant women's works and the bourgeois response enables us to find new answers to questionsthat have centrally influenced our thinking about what makes art Art. Kord's book provides a fresh look at some of this fascinating literature, and at the roles and attitudes of the lower classes and of women in the Art world of the day. It also advances a revolutionary thesis: that the eighteenth-century bourgeoisie established itself as the dominant cultural class not primarily, as is commonly held, in opposition to aristocratic culture, but more importantly through its dissociation from and suppression of lower-class art forms. Susanne Kord is Professor and Head of the Department of German at University College London. Her book Little Detours: The Letters and Plays of Luise Gottsched was published by Camden House in 2000. Click here to read an interview with Susanne Kord (Word document 25KB) CONTENTS ......Page 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ......Page 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......Page 12 INTRODUCTION: Aesthetic Evasions and Social Consequences......Page 16 Visionaries: The Artist As Servant, God, or Vegetable......Page 34 Window Shoppers: The Servant As Artist......Page 54 The Wages of Suffering and the Wages of Sin: Class Issues and Literary Patronage......Page 63 “Menial Maids, with No Release from Toil”: Some Paradigms......Page 69 “The Poet’s Silence is the Triumph of Taste”: The Case of Anna Louisa Karsch......Page 85 “Drive Your Cows from the Foot of Parnassus”: The Case of Ann Yearsley......Page 108 3: The Life As the Work: Counterfeit Confessions, Bogus Biographies, Literary Lives......Page 120 Arcadian Shepherdesses and Toiling Peasants: On Poetry and Poverty......Page 123 The German Sappho: Controversies Surrounding a Legend......Page 133 A Man or a Mother? Anna Louisa Karsch Forgets Her Gender......Page 138 Beauty and the Beasts: Fairy Tale Imagery......Page 148 Unhappy Endings: Biographical Punishment......Page 168 Physical Labor and Poetic “Idleness”......Page 175 Rural Realities I: Pastoral Landscapes and Village Scenes......Page 176 Rural Realities II: The Rustic at Work......Page 191 Pastorals and Power: Social and Aesthetic Considerations......Page 207 5: Inspired by Nature, Inspired by Love: Two Poets on Poetic Inspiration......Page 209 The Rural Muse: On Nature Inspiration and Book Learning......Page 210 Under Love’s Spell: Authors and Readers......Page 223 Reading the Reader: Of Critics and Posterity......Page 231 Castle-Building: Of Patrons and Their Empty Promises......Page 246 CONCLUSION: On the Gender and Class of Art......Page 255 APPENDIX: Short Biographies of Women Peasant Poets......Page 274 WORKS CITED ......Page 288 INDEX ......Page 330 First comparative study of an unlikely group of 18th-century women peasants. This is the first comparative study of a highly unlikely group of eighteenth-century women peasants in England, Scotland, and Germany, women who, as a rule, received little or no formal education and lived by manual labor, many of them in dire poverty. Among them are the English washerwoman Mary Collier, the English domestic servants Elizabeth Hands and Molly Leapor, the German cowherd Anna Louisa Karsch, the Scottish diarywoman Janet Little, theScottish domestic servant Christian Milne, and the English milkmaid Ann Cromartie Yearsley. Their literature is here linked with one of the major eighteenth-century aesthetic trends in all three countries, the Natural Genius craze, which culminated in highland primitivism in Scotland and England, and in the Sturm und Drang in Germany. Kord's analysis of the peasant women's works and the bourgeois response enables us to find new answers to questionsthat have centrally influenced our thinking about what makes art Art. Kord's book provides a fresh look at some of this fascinating literature, and at the roles and attitudes of the lower classes and of women in the Art world of the day. It also advances a revolutionary that the eighteenth-century bourgeoisie established itself as the dominant cultural class not primarily, as is commonly held, in opposition to aristocratic culture, but more importantly through its dissociation from and suppression of lower-class art forms. Susanne Kord is Professor and Head of the Department of German at University College London. Her book Little The Letters and Plays of Luise Gottsched was published by Camden House in 2000. Click here to read an interview with Susanne Kord (Word document 25KB) This is the first comparative study of a highly unlikely group of authors: eighteenth-century women peasants in England, Scotland, and Germany, women who, as a rule, received little or no formal education and lived by manual labor, many of them in dire poverty. Among them are the English washerwoman Mary Collier, the English domestic servants Elizabeth Hands and Molly Leapor, the German cowherd Anna Louisa Karsch, the Scottish diarywoman Janet Little, theScottish domestic servant Christian Milne, and the English milkmaid Ann Cromartie Yearsley. Their literature is here linked with one of the major eighteenth-century aesthetic trends in all three countries, the Natural Genius craze, which culminated in highland primitivism in Scotland and England, and in the Sturm und Drang in Germany. Kord's analysis of the peasant women's works and the bourgeois response enables us to find new answers to questionsthat have centrally influenced our thinking about what makes art Art. Kord's book provides a fresh look at some of this fascinating literature, and at the roles and attitudes of the lower classes and of women in the Art world of the day. It also advances a revolutionary thesis: that the eighteenth-century bourgeoisie established itself as the dominant cultural class not primarily, as is commonly held, in opposition to aristocratic culture, but more importantly through its dissociation from and suppression of lower-class art forms.

Susanne Kord is Professor and Head of the Department of German at University College London. Her book Little Detours: The Letters and Plays of Luise Gottsched was published by Camden House in 2000. Click here to read an interview with Susanne Kord (Word document 25KB) "This is the first comparative study of a highly unlikely group of authors: eighteenth-century women peasants in England, Scotland, and Germany, women who, as a rule, received little or no formal education and lived by manual labor, many of them in dire poverty. Among them are the English washerwoman Mary Collier, the English domestic servants Elizabeth Hands and Molly Leapor, the German cowherd Anna Louisa Karsch, the Scottish diarywoman Janet Little, the Scottish domestic servant Christian Milne, and the English milkmaid Ann Cromartie Yearsley. Their literature is here linked with one of the major eighteenth-century aesthetic trends in all three countries, the Natural Genius craze, which culminated in highland primitivism in Scotland and England, and in the Sturm und Drang in Germany."--BOOK JACKET.