Publisher's Synopsis
Marjorie Gelus analyzes the obsessive focus on sex and gender in three of Kleist’s stories. Gail Hart argues that Kleist’s defeminization of “Anmut” in his “Marionettentheater” essay reinforces the exclusivity of a male homosocial universe. The relationship of masochism to female erotic desire is the subject of Brigid Haines’s examination of Lou Andreas-Salomé’s Eine Ausschweifung. Silke von der Emde investigates Irmtraud Morgner’s use of postmodern strategies to promote feminist goals. Susan Anderson rereads Monika Maron’s Die Überläuferin, analyzing the self-emancipatory effects of fantasy.
A cluster of articles providing feminist perspectives on the Holocaust is introduced by Ruth Klüger’s “Dankrede zum Grimmelshausen-Preis.” Karen Remmler discusses the relationship between memory and the portrayal of female bodies in two recent Holocaust narratives. Suzanne Shipley examines the significance of exile in the autobiographies of two women who fled Austria for New York. Sigrid Lange introduces Marie-Therese Kerschbaumer’s Der weibliche Name des Widerstands, a challenge to Austria’s attempts to minimize its role in Nazi persecutions. Miriam Frank provides an overview of lesbian literature and publishing practices in Germany, and Luise Pusch reports on a recent attempt at language censorship in the German parliament. The volume closes with the editors’ look at Women in German after twenty years.