The Wasting Heroine in German Fiction by Women, 1770-1914

Abstract

This study of German fiction by women 1770-1914 adds a new dimension to existing debates on the association of women and illness in literature. Drawing on a number of primary medical sources, it constructs a history of women's self-starvation, eating behaviour, and wasting diseases in particular, and examines the portrayal of the ‘wasting heroine’ in works by female and selected male authors in this context. It becomes clear that though the wasting heroine sometimes reinforces popular notions of female fragility, in certain works the book represents a rejection of a traditionally female role or allows an author to make a socially critical point about women's status in society.