Birgit Pargner Birgit Pargner (review)

Abstract

MLR,96.3,200 I 889 Zwischen Eranen und Kommerz. Das Ruhrtheater Charlotte Birch-&eiyers (I800-I868) in seiner kunstlertschen und kommerziellen Verwertung. Quellenforschung amHandschr?ftenAachla /. ByBIRGIT PARGNER. Bielefeld: Aisthesis. I998. 5I2 PP. DM 98. Charlotte Birch-Pfeifer (I 800-I 868). Eine Frau beherrscht die Buhne. BYBIRGIT PARGNER. Bielefeld:Aisthesis. I999. I92pp. DM58. Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer wasanimportant figure inmid-nineteenth-century theatre history, asactress, asdirector oftheStadttheater inZurich for sixyears ( I 837-43), andas theauthor ofovera hundred playsandlibretti. From tfeffer-Rosel (I829) onwards herworkenjoyed remarkable and sustained popularity bothin the commercial theatres andinthecourt theatres inViennaandBerlin. Herbiggest successes, including Die Waise ausLowood (I853,after ffane Eyre) andaboveallDie Gralle (I856,after Lapetite Fadette), provided major roles for leading actresses ofthe time. HerJ%achla,S, comprising overIO,OOO items, isinthemanuscript collection of the Deutsches Theatermuseum inMunich, whose curator, Birgit Pargner, hasmade copioususe ofhitherto unpublished material in herstudy Zwischen Tranen und Kommerz, a systematic investigation ofBirch-Pfeiffier's workand reception as a dramatist. TheIntroduction includes a brief account ofthe acquisition andscope of the AachlaJffl (PP.I6-I 9). Originally a Munich dissertation, thestudy begins with a review ofprevious literature andproceeds toa history ofthetradition ofsentimental drama, a brief survey ofthevarying conceptions ofthe'Volksstuck', anda detailed analysis of selected plays byBirch-Pfeiffer. Allthis would havemadea competent dissertation onits own, butitisinthesecond half that the wider interest andthe realexcitement ofthebooklie.HereBirch-Pfeiffier's career as a playwright issetincontext: the evolving criteria oftheatre critics, thepolitical climate aroundI848 (when she provided thelibretto for Meyerbeer's Vielka), andtheprogrammes andfinances of thecommercial andcourt theatres inBerlin andVienna, including theimportant roleof theatrical agencies. This is authentic archival research, all themore impressive inview ofBirch-Pfeiffier's very poorhandwriting, which makes many of her manuscripts, her letters especially, well-nigh illegible. Thematerial onthe Berlin theatres, lesswellcovered inspecialist literature than their Viennese equivalents, is particularly valuable. Aswellas an instructive discussion ofthestandpoints and influence oftheBerlin critics (pp.I84-237),Pargner documents Birch-Pfeiffier's dealings with Friedrich Cerf, Deichmann, andWallner inthecommercial theatres (pp.346-89) and withKustnerand Hulsenin the Konigliche Schauspiele (pp.430-64), the evidence judiciously augmented from her private correspondence. Thebibliography helpfully includes performance details ofallthe plays. In November I999 theDeutsches Theatermuseum mounted an exhibition on Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffier underthetelling heading EineFraubeherrscht dieBuhne. Though thematerial inPargner's illustrated catalogue for this exhibition overlaps withthatin Zwischen Wranen undKommerz, it is in effiect a separate full-scale monograph. What itprovides isa chronologically organized introduction toBirchPfeiffer 's whole career, including heryears inZurich, thecritical opposition ofher former loverGutzkow from themid-I84os onwards, andthecrueldeathofher infant grandson inI858.Thenarrative issupported byselected quotations from her correspondence, andsomeofthemost important documents, suchashercontract with KarlCarl(I828),arereproduced infull. A well-planned appendix includes lists ofherrolesandofherplaysandlibretti, together with brief biographies of leadingtheatrical figures featuring in the story. The book can be warmly recommended as an attractively readable andinformative overview; indeed, both Reviews 890 books should find their wayinto alllibraries covering nineteenth-century German theatre history. UNIVERSITY OFEXETER W.E.YATES Deutschsprachige Schrzftstellerznnen des Findesiecle. Ed.byKARIN TEBBEN. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. I999.Vii + 350pp. DM 58. Publication timing (December I999)wasoutstanding, choiceofsubjects, despite theomission ofthedramatist ElsaBernstein, equally impressive. KarinTebben surveys theessayswithin thecontext ofthedichotomy between realism and Naturalism as manifestations oftheexternal appearances andinternal realities of women inbourgeois society. Sheshows howviolent descriptions bywomen writers served tohighlight often hidden cruelty. Theinfluence ofNietzsche, Schopenhauer andStirner isassessed, together with the phenomenon ofnervous illness particularly among women whosought a newidentity through writing orart.Against Ernst Mach'sinfamous dictum 'Das Ichistunrettbar', writing emerges asa waytowards a morefulfilling, often ecstatic form ofexistence. Tebbenpinpoints theessential concerns ofwomenwriters at theturnofthecentury as sexuality, marriage, motherhood, education andcareer. Shefurther formulates their underlying basic problem as: 'War"Weiblichkeit" einenaturgegebene Eigenschaft derFrauoder einekulturelle Konstruktion?' (p. xo). Typification bymenofwoman asfemmefragile or femmefatale provoked nearly all women writers toconstruct alternative models free from threats ofviolence and domination. Indeed, oneaimofthebookasa whole istocorrect traditional, often partial interpretations oftheir works, asinKatharina vonHammerstein's presentationofFranziska zuReventlow as someone whousedherpersonal experiences as an unmarried mother to engagewithcontemporary political and socialissues. Another example isEvaBorst's discussion oftherealsignificance oftheprostitutenovels Wagebuch einer Verlorenen byMargaret Bohme (I905)andDer heilige Skarabaus by ElseJerusalem (I909).Theproblem ofhysteria as a sign ofbothfemale sexuality andsuppression ofthesubconscious focuses thefrustration ofwomen, especially women writers, faced byaesthetic lawsandtraditions reflecting maleattitudes. The categorizing influence ofOttoWeininger's Geschlecht und Charakter (I903)prolonged wellinto...