Women, the Novel, and the German Nation 1771–1871

Domestic Fiction in the Fatherland

Todd Kontje author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:1st Oct '98

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Women, the Novel, and the German Nation 1771–1871 cover

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

This 1998 book is a survey in English of novels by German women from 1771 to 1871. It discusses the lives and works of fourteen women writers, and argues that their novels played an important role in shaping attitudes toward class, gender and the nation in the century before Germany's first unification.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.

"Masterfully navigating German history with the canon of German literature, Kontje discusses uncharted waters, discussing authors who deserve higher ranking in a too-male German literature. Well written, competently researched, excellent footnotes, the book belongs in all libraries supporting German literature studies." Choice
"Kontje's work, with its up-to-date bibliography and useful index, constitutes an excellent introductory study to these works...Kontje treads new paths in emphasizing both the connection between domesticity and nationality in fiction and the differences (rather than similarities) among contemporary women's writings..." The German Quarerly
"an encompassing account of women writers during the 19th century..." Germanic Notes and Reviews

ISBN: 9780521631105

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 19mm

Weight: 550g

260 pages