Mothers, Warriors, Guardians of the Soul: Female Discourse in National Socialism 1924-1934 by Geraldine Theresa Horan (review)

Abstract

MLR, 100.4, 2005 1137 disbelief of the twenty hours per week devoted to DaF in the Petersburg Academy Gymnasium in 1735 (the top class had to get by with just eighteen: p. 146); and feast your eyes on a marked translation exercise, complete with the teacher's laconic comment mediocriter (p. 277). University of Nottingham Nicola McLelland Mothers, Warriors, Guardians of the Soul: Female Discourse in National Socialism ig24-igj4. By Geraldine Theresa Horan. (Studia Linguistica Germanica, 68) Berlin and New York: de Gruyter. 2003. 350 pp. ?94. ISBN 3-11-017232-1. According to the author, the object of this study is the 'language use (in written form) of a specified group of individuals, in this case defined by their gender, their organisational loyalties and political involvement [i.e. women who actively supported National Socialism], analysed in its socio-historical context, with acknowledgmentof the social constraints and power constellations forming and maintaining it' (pp. 4-5). She aims to show that 'there were key terms and expressions and communicative strategies which reveal a common core of self-identity and which mark the group as specifically female' (p. 3). (It would perhaps have been more accurate to write 'reveal and create', since Horan makes it clear in the course of the work that she sees the link between language and reality as a dynamic, two-way process.) The choice of the adjective 'female' rather than 'feminine' is nowhere discussed, although there is a brief discussion of earlier research into so-called 'women's lan? guage' in section 1.4.1. It seems a slightly odd choice, given the dominant view nowadays that linguistic differences between the sexes are almost exclusively socially rather than biologically or physiologically determined. This is reflected in the com? mon use of 'feminine' and 'masculine' rather than 'male' and 'female' to describe such differences. However, nothing in the analysis suggests that Horan believes that the characteristic traits of female discourse in her corpus result from essential biological or physiological differences. The corpus consists of a range of text-types (e.g. letters, circulars, pamphlets, jour? nal articles) written by 'female participants in National Socialism' (p. 2), and the analysis focuses on the formation of neologisms, an examination of key terms and expressions relating to significant thematic categories, and text-level characteristics of female discourse. The approach is qualitative rather than quantitative, and one of the strengths of this work is the depth ofthe analysis. It draws on various theoretical approaches to discourse analysis and mines a large number of sources in order to provide detailed information about the historical and socio-political context. Horan criticizes earlier word-based studies of language in National Socialism, but herself takes lexemes and phrases as her starting-point. However, she contextualizes these items and examines their relationships with other words in and across texts (e.g. in terms of antonymy and collocation) and also relates them to the wider historicalpolitical context. She is thus able to uncover a creative and differentiated usage of language: for example, the study of Kampf illustrates how women appropriated a key term in NS discourse in general in order to negotiate an identity that reconciled the passivity expected of them by the male Nazi leadership with a wish to signal their equality with these men. The study of Natur gives us an insight into women's attempts to improve their status by appealing to a higher authority than the male leaders. The study of Beruf uncovers more heterogeneous attitudes towards paid work than one might have expected, but also a hierarchy of occupations considered suitable for women. This is a very interesting and valuable work, but there are a few weaknesses. Occa? sionally the expression is not very clear and terms are introduced without sufficientex- 1138 Reviews planation, e.g. 'moderates' (p. 70); in Chapter 4 the terms 'expressive, persuasive and directive functions' are introduced without explanation (they are not listed with the other text functions on p. 272). Some claims need to be toned down, e.g. the claim that stereotypical models of women 'have a prescriptive effecton the female readership' (p. 80)?we cannot know that this was so, whatever the intention...