Women and Literature in the Goethe Era 1770-1820: Determined Dilettantes by Helen Fronius

Abstract

232 Reviews Women and Literature in theGoethe Era 1770-1820: Determined Dilettantes. By HELENFRONIUS. (Oxford Modern Languagesand Literature Monographs) Oxford: ClarendonPress. 2007. ix+275pp. ?55. ISBN978-o-19-921092-3. This welcomenewstudy (a revised Oxford D.Phil. thesis) aimsatthe'recovery ofthe realpositionofwomenauthorsin German society'(p. 1) intheperiod1770-1820 as linkedtothecultural literary life ofGermanyandadds somenew materialtothe intensive literary-historical recovery ofGermanwomenauthorsthat started several decadesago.Thefirst twochapters review the pertinent issues of 'Ideologies ofGen der'and concludethat'Gender Censorship' was 'notamonolithicforce[. . .]buta careful balanceofauthorization anddenial' (p.93).Chapter3addressestheimpor tant questionof 'Women andReading'and focuses on theparticipation ofwomen intheeighteenth-century 'reading revolution'. Italsohighlights thelimitations and anxiety about women's readingintheongoingcontroversy knownas the'Lese-Wut Debatte'.Helen Froniuscomments on thereading experience ofLuiseMejer and Elisa von derRecke as foundin Mejer's letters toBoie andRecke'sautobiography as examples ofwomen's reading. Much (auto)biographical materialhas untilnow receivedtoo little attention in readingstudies, and itcouldand shouldbe greatly augmented and interpreted. There were regional, class,andgenerational differences in thereading abilities, habits,interests, andmode of reading bywomen,and the scholarly controversy oversupposedly femalesuperficial, extensive reading versus male intensive, critical reading needs tobe addressed. With Chapter 4, 'WomenWriters and theLiteraryMarket', Fronius can begin to present heroriginalarchivalresearch. Aftera careful review of the major organiza tional andeconomicchangesin Germanbookproduction, sheprovidesa revealing listof titles bywomen authors publishedbyHoffmann undCampe between1781 and 1820andbasesherdiscussionalsoonwomenauthors'letters tothe publishers Nicolai and to Goschen.Andwhile thereisgenerally rather little'evidence toshow how women interacted withtheir publishers inthis period' (p.159; mostpublishing houseswith a history datingback to theeighteenth century losttheir archivesin theSecond WorldWar), Froniuscandiscussletters byJulie vonKamecke,Susanne vonBandemer, CarolineSchlegel, Thereseausdem Winkel,EliseSommer, Auguste Fischer, andBetty Gleim.Thepublishers'responses, ifany,areunfortunately lost; inCotta's extensive archiveone finds merelythat'Cottacorresponded with only tenwomen, usually in a personal, not professional tone, about publication of their husbands'or fathers' work' (p.159).Unfortunately, the publishing career ofTherese Huber,nowmeticulously documentedin MagdaleneHeuser's five volumesofHu ber's letters, has been omitted. These letters, many of themself-assured business letters rather thaninviting pityand sympathy, helptoexplain'theremarkable incur sion women made into the literarymarket place in the lastquarter of the eighteenth century' (p.189). The final chapter dealswith 'Women and thePublicSphere'and surveys publi cationsbywomen (mostly poetry)intheTeutsche Merkur,theresponses byEsther Gad and Amalia Holst toCampe's Viiterlicher Rath fur meine Tochter (1789), and MLR, 104.1, 2009 233 three women'spublications abouttheir privatelives(theactress KarolineSchulze Kummerfeld, Elise Biirger, who isnotoriousamongGermanisten because ofher 'scandalous marriagetoGottfried AugustBurger'(p.214), and theroyal mistress WilhelminevonLichtenau). Thisdiscussion undertherubric of the'public sphere' remains theleastsatisfactory. Fronius doesnotadequately define what she meansby the Habermasianconcept ofthe'public sphere' and lumpstogether three rather dif ferent types of text withouttheir respective socio-historical ramifications. Women's poetry with arguments fromthequerelles de femmes, discussionsofproblemsof marriageandwidowhood-as found occasionally(andoften anonymously) inthe Teutsche Merkur-go back to at leasttheearlyeighteenth centuryinGermany (Ziegler, Zaunemann)and to thenovelsofScudery, and laterthoseofLa Roche. Schulze-Kummerfeld's autobiography isasuniqueandfortunate apieceas the(few) surviving letters and playsofCarolineNeuber,and (women's)revelations about affairs always made greatreading. Butwhat istheir significance for women'srolein the publicsphere? With thelast decadeofthe eighteenth century and the French Re volution, there werecertainly cultural openingsfor women-as there always seemto be intimes ofturmoil andchange. Theyoung generation ofthe Romantics coming of ageafter 1790certainly reflect these openingsintheir letters, personal writings, and (often anonymous) journalcontributions. Muchmore research intothese sourcesis neededtoaddress more adequately theappearance and roleof women inthe public spherein Germanyfrom 1770 to1820. Fronius isnot interested inand foundno 'evidence... .]of psychicdamage inflicted onwomen by an overwhelmingly patriarchal society'(p. 234).Butwhy be sodismissive about this? Her studyisawelcomeadditionto theongoingreco very ofwomen writers. This has a long tradition when we think of, say,Ludmilla Assing'sSophievonLa Roche (1859), a study based onmuch epistolary material now lost(mostly from Varnhagen'scollection).This reviewer applaudsFronius's call for a 'return toprimary sources' (p. 236), a call thatwas already issued in such path-breaking publications asBecoming Visible: Women in European History, ed.by RenateBridenthal andClaudiaKoontz (Boston: Houghton Miffin,1977) andhas been pursued rigorously ever since. As a reaction toGerman literary scholarship of the1990Sitisawelcomechangefrom speculations aboutfemininity, female writing, andgendertrouble from Cixous toButler. OHIO STATEUNIVERSITY BARBARABECKER-CANTARINO Schauspiele indrei Banden. ByKARL GOTTFRIED LESSING. Ed. byCLAUDE D. CON TER.Vols iand ii.Hanover: Wehrhahn.2007. 388pp. (vol.I);322pp. (vol.II). e28 (each). ISBN 978-3-86525...