Der reiche Mann und die arme Frau: German Women Writers and the Eighteenth–Century Literary Market–Place

Abstract

How did women writers, despite obvious disadvantages, engineer their entry into the literary market in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? An examination of women's correspondence with publishers such as Georg Joachim Göschen and Friedrich Nicolai goes some way towards providing an explanation. These letters, all unpublished, reveal the full extent of women's proactive pursuit of publication, in defiance of contemporary gender ideology. They also indicate the way in which women authors were able to use eighteenth–century gender constructs to their own advantage: to enhance the sale of their publications and to appeal to publishers. At the same time, they did not feel bound by the behaviour prescribed for them, and show themselves to have been adept at playfully manipulating the gender code. Correspondence is shown to bridge the gap between the private and the public sphere, thereby allowing women to become their own agents and publicists in the eighteenth–century market–place.Was will der Buchhändler der Dichterin, der reiche Mann der armen Frau, für den Bogen dieser [Arbeit] geben? Bald erbitt ich mir Antwort auf diese Frage.