women in german number 54 editorial march 1991

1
WOMEN IN GERMAN
NUMBER 54
EDITORIAL
MARCH 1991
This issue is shorter than most, so that you are receiving what more accurately
resembles a true newsletter instead of a "journalette" (Jeanette Clausen's term). In view of
the troubles we had with the stapling of the last mega-issue, brevity has its positive sides. I
apo,ogize once more for the delay and incovenience suffered by those of you who received only
the addressed cover of your November issue--or nothing at all--and had to request another
copy. My printer assures me that his upgraded technology should preclude any repetition of that
unhappy occurrence, and as the ultimate bearer of responsibility, I will double-check the
finished product.
Although a shorter newsletter occurs by chance and not design, it nonetheless seems
appropriate, in view of the other WiG mailings that will compete for your attention in the near
future: the latest volume of the WiG Yearbook, and Women in German Textbook Reviews
11/ (organized by Lorely French and Marilyn Webster). I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of
both any day now. From what I have heard, this very substantive collection of reviews should
prove a most valuable aid for selecting next year's textbooks. Congratulations and many thanks
to Lorely and Marilyn, and to our Yearbook editors, Jeanette Clausen and Sara Friedrichsmeyer,
for their hard work in providing us these essential forms of support!
Since the 1990 WiG conference, members of the Steering Committee have been engaged
in a series of round-robin letters to clarify issues of structure and governance. The resulting
revision of the Steering Committee's charge, printed in this issue's Bulletins section, should
clarify duties and facilitate the way the organization conducts business between conferences.
Thanks to the organizational efforts of Leslie Morris, Karen Remmler, and their
conference committee, the plans for the 1991 WiG conference are taking shape well on schedule.
Please read carefully the conference update and return to the conference committee the
questionnaire included in the Bulletins.
One item you will not find in this issue is a review of Frauenfahrplan '91, written by
the WiG-New York members. It was delayed, but will appear in the Summer issue. In the
meantime, I recommend that you discover the delights of the volume yourself by ordering a copy
(see form in the WiG Bulletins)! You will, however, be able to read about Jeaninne Blackwell's
new baby in the Personals section. WiG cabaret organizers refuse to take responsibility for the
fact that Jeanine's maternity replacement, much like the plot of the skit, had to be hired
unexpectedly sooner than anticipated. Truth and fiction converge once morel
IMPORTANT FOR THE 1991 WIG CONFERENCE: Please read carefully the conference
update and pre-conference information sheet in the pages that follow. Your reply does not
commit you to attending; however, your cooperation will not only assist the conference
organizers greatly, but help assure that your needs are met to the greatest extent possible.
I wrote my first WiG editorial just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Once again the
magnitude of world events requires at least some acknowledgement, in spite of, or perhaps even
because of, our particular profession. Indeed, I have found it difficult in these first months of
1991 not to evaluate continually my daily tasks in light of the momentous events and the
aftermath of the Gulf War. Even when I have not been consciously attending to the issues
involved, I realize how my moods and decreased energy level, like those of my students, have
betrayed indirectly my preoccupation with the enormity of the war and all it implies. The
welcome cessation of official hostilities does not obviate what is, after all, the fundamental
question about if and how our academic and scholarly endeavors really matter.
2
In this regard, it has helped me to keep in mind the response of one colleague, a
professional dancer and a modern dance teacher. When the news of the outbreak of war reached
her students during the final rehearsal for a major performance, their first thoughts were to
cancel the show. Yet as they deliberated the issues, they realized how profoundly they felt the
need to present positive images to counteract the violence that was occurring, to affirm through
dance's fusion of movement and ideas such values as imagination, creativity, compassion, and
relationship, and to address thereby the heart as well as the mind.
I found a correlation to these dancers' response in the sixth poem in Brecht's short
cycle, "1940," which just by chance was part of the chapter in the German 2 text I was
teaching from that mid-January week. In the poem, the father at first gives cynical replies to
the son's questions about what he should study, pointing out in effect the uselessness of booklearning for survival in the real world. Yet at the end, the father says unexpectedly: "Ja, Ierne
Mathematik, sgae ichl Lerne FranzOsisch, Ierne Geschichtel" It is not so much that intellectual
pursuits might have a practical value when peace, however defined, might return (as my
students said on first impulse), or that they take the place of practical political involvement.
Rather, I realized that engaging myself and my students in pursuits of the human spirit was in
itself an act of peace-making in a day-to-day setting. Brecht's affirmation of the life of the
heart and the mind as resistance to barbarism is just as apt ~ome fifty years later.
--Julie Klassen
**NEXT NEWSLETTER DEADLINE: JUNE 30TH**
lJHAT
Do
WA. lT€R.S
Vf\CATIONS ?
FAMOUS
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ON
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3
WIG BULLETINS
Missing the November Newsletter?
Due to unforeseen stapling problems, many copies of the last newsletter disintegrated en route
to their addressees. We know about some of them, because you have requested replacements.
However, it has just come to our attention that there are more of you who did not even receive
the address page and have not expressed your outrage to anyone who can do anything about it.
please, if you don't receive an issue, let Julie Klassen (507/645-4013; or 663-4249) or
Jeanette Clausen (219/481-6836)know.
Moving? Send us your new addressl
(Don't feed the shreddersl)
Did you know that bulk mail that isn't deliverable as addressed is destroyed? Bulk mail
is neither forwarded nor returned to the sender, but is
fed to the U.S. Post Office's shredders -- hardly the final resting place we had in mind for the
WIG newsletters and yearbookl
So, to be sure of receiving all your mail from WIG, please let us know your new address
several weeks before you move. If you have missed any issues of the WIG Newsletter or Yearbook
even though your address label is current, we will of course replace them (as long as we have
extra copies). Send address changes and requests for missed issues of the WIG Yearbook to
Jeanette Clausen, Modern Languages, IPFW, Fort Wayne IN 46805-1499.
U Mass-Amherst thanks WiG
Dear Wiggies,
We want to let all of you know how touched and cheered up we were by WiG's letter to the
UMASS provost last fall~ urging him to save our jobs. It really meant a lot to us.
You may have heard the good news that our department was removed from the
administration's "hit list" in November, so we could breathe a little easier.
The University and the State are still in crisis, though, so this does not mean that cuts
won't be threatened again at tenure time. It will take a lot of solidarity around the country to
protect the humanities from the Reagan/Bush budget axe.
Thanks again for sending us a little more energy to keep on fighting.
Sincerely,
Sigrid Brauner and Barton Byg
Women in German Yearbook
Contributions are invited for the Women in German Yearbook. The
editors are interested in feminist approaches to all aspects of German literary, cultural, and language studies, including teaching.
4
The Women in German Yearbook is a refereed journal. Prepare manuscripts for
anonymous review. We prefer that manuscripts not exceed 25 pages (typed, doubled-spaced),
including notes. Follow the second edition (1984) of the MLA Handbook (separate notes from
works cited). Send one copy of the manuscript to each coeditor:
Jeanette Clausen
Sara Friedrichsmeyer
Modern Foreign Languages
Foreign Languages
Indiana U.-Purdue U.
University of Cincinnati, RWC
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Cincinnati, OH 45236
Conference Update and Information Sheet
In order to get some early planning under way, so that the organizers of the 1991 conference
can accommodate as many specific requests as possible, please take a minute to read through the
information on the facing page and to return the information sheet by May 1st.
The conference will take place from Thursday, Nov. 7th (arrival at site beginning 5 p.m.)
through Sunday, Nov. 10th (departure by noon) in Great Barrington, Western Massachusetts at
the Camp Eisner Institute.
Plan to arrive at BRADLEY AIRPORT (Hartford, Conn.). The airport is app. 90 minutes from
the conference site.
We will look into DAY CARE based on your response to the questions below. If no one requests
Day Care, it will not be provided.
Although the site can accommodate 150 people, a full house would mean a very limited number
of double rooms and no singles. In order for us to make arrangements for signles and doubles at
a nearby motel or guest house, we need to know in advance if you anticipate wanting a single or
double. We know it is early and that some of you may not know what your needs or desires will
be in the fall, but we thought we would ask anyway.
SESSION COORDINATORS: If possible, plan to get preliminary information about participants and
session titles to Leslie Morris by June 1st, 1991. Send to: 67 West St., Hadley MA 01035.
Tel.: (413) 564-1508.
***EXTRA! NEWS FLASH! ***EXTRA! NEWS FLASH! ***EXTRA! NEWS FLASHI***
Both WALFRIEDE SCHMITT and ELISABETH ENDERS have accepted the invitation to be our guest
speakers at the 1991 conference. Walfriede Schmitt is an actress, feminist, and co-founder of
the Unabhiingiger Frauenverband. Elisabeth Enders is a Germanistin whose most recent book,
Die gelbe Farbe: Die Wurzeln der Judenfreundschaft auf dem Christen tum, appeared in Piper
Verlag (1989).
5
WIG CONFERENCE ,1991/PRE~CONFERENCE INFORMATION SHEET
PLEASE RETURN BY MAY 1ST!!!
In order to have a general idea of what your special needs will
be, we would like you to mark the items that you anticipate
pertaining to you. This is only a preliminary questionnaire, so
don't worry if you change your plans b~fore the conference.
Final information and registration forms will be included in the
August Newsletter.
Return the info sheet to Karen Remmler, Box 1018, German Dept
Mt. Holyoke College
So. Hadley, MA 10175
or call
(413) 538-5138
e-mail: kremmler~hc.bitnet
Name:
Address:
Phone or e-mail:
1. Do you anticipate needing DAY CARE?
yes___
no___
maybe ___
How many children?
Ages?
For the entire conference?
yes
no
For which dates?
2. Do you anticipate requesting a SINGLE room?
yes
no
maybe _ __
3. Do you anticipate requesting a DOUBLE room?
yes _
no _ __
maybe _ __
4. If you checked yes or maybe for 2 and 3, would you be able
to cover the extra cost of a double or single room (app $1020 per night)?
yes
no
maybe _____
5. What SPECIFIC REQUESTS do you anticipate?
(For example, wheel-chair'accessible room, private bath,
silence, etc?)
7
Women in German-Steering Committee Charge
(As a result of some reflection upon the changing face(s) of WiG, and in response to specific
organizational issues that have surfaced in the last year or two, the Steering Committee has
prepared the following revisions to and clarifications of its stated responsibilities.)
Composition of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committ~e is made up of six
members of WiG who serve staggered three-year terms. In addition, the treasurer,
newsletter coordinator, and Yearbook editor(s) serve as ex-officio members with voting
rights. The two members in their third year of service act as co-chairs for that year.
New members are elected at the annual WiG conference but their term begins at the
December MLA meeting and ends with the MLA meeting in three years' time. New
members elected at the conference serve as non-voting members until the MLA meeting.
Unexpected vacancies on the Steering Committee are filled by runners-up in the
election. A geographic distribution of SC members is desirable.
Charge of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is responsible for conducting
the ongoing business of the organization. They do this in accordance with the charges
given them by the WiG membership at the annual conference. Their duties are
determined by the concerns of the membership. Decisions which have to be made in
between the yearly conferences are accomplished by mail or phone contacts among SC
members. Agreement of a majority of the SC members is necessary for such decisions.
Conference Agenda/Business Meeting. The Steering Committee serves as an agenda
committee for the business meeting held at the annual WiG conference. The SC meets the
afternoon before the conference begins in order to set the agenda for the business
meeting and to discuss other relevant issues. The two co-chairs chair the business
meeting· at the conference.
Conference Site/program Coordination. The Steering Committee is responsible for
overseeing the search for a new conference site every three years. The SC co-chairs
should initiate and coordinate efforts to identify possible sites two years before one is
needed, so that options can be discussed and voted on in a timely manner. Criteria for
choosing a site include accessibility (proximity to a major airport), availability of
suitable facilities at a reasonable cost, and--most importantly--the presence of a core
group of WiG members willing and able to do the work. The conference site and program
coordinators should be identified at the annual conference concurrently with a new site;
if they are not SC members, the SC must make arrangements to ensure that there is
adequate communication between the SC and the site/program coordinators.
December 1990
8
On March 8, International Women's Day, Deutschland Nachrichten (a weekly news publication
of the German Information Center in New York) contained a chilling article which ought to be of
concern to all of us. We reprint it here with permission.
Abtreibungs-Kontrollen
an den deutschen Grenzen?
ach einem Bericht des NachN richlenmagazins
"Der Spiegel"
Yom 4. Min haben Beamte des Bundesgrenzschutzes in einigen Fillen
deutsche Frauen, die aus den Niederlanden zuriickkebrten, zu gynikologischen Zwangsuntersuchungen gebracht, UDl festzusleDen, ob
die Frauen in den Niederlanden
einen Schwangerschaflsabbruch
vorgenommen bitten.
Nach westdeutschem Strafrechl in den ostdcutschen Undem gill zonichst noch die FristenlOsung des
ehemaligen DDR-Strafrechts macht cine Frau sich strafbar, die
eine Schwangerschaft abbrechen
1i&, ohne daB sie eine Beschcinisung liber eine Indikation hat, und
zwar unabhingig davon, ob die Abtreibung im Inland oder im Ausland
stattfmdet.
Der Berichl JOsle bei Politikern
und Politikerinnen vor allem der·
FOP und der SPD Emparung aus.
Das Bundesinnenminislerium in
Bonn erkJirle, der Grenzschulz
babe keine generelle Weisung. aus
den Niederlanden zuriickkebrende
Frauen auf etwaige Schwangerschaftsabbriiche bin untersuchen zu
lassen. Wenn aber konkrete Verdachtsmomenle vorligen, zum Beispiel die Rechnung der Klinik,
miisse der Grenzschutz die Staatsanwlschaft UDlerrichten.
Der Justizminister von Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rolf Krumsiek,
riumte einen FaD ein, in dem cine
Frau zu einer gyniko1ogischen Untersuchunggezwungen worden sci.
9
Frauenfahrplan '91 Available Now
After six years of silence, the editors of the Erauenfahrplan 1 present new prose and poetry
by WIG-New York members in the Erauenfahrplan '91. 8e the first on your block to read
"Nackt auf dem Teppich," "Roots and Wings," and "Der liebe Gott sieht alles."
Price per copy
$6.00
Postage and handling $1 .50
Make checks payable to Dagmar Stern and mail to:
8-20 Hampton Arms
Garden View Terrace
East Windsor, NJ 08520-4306
Please send me _ _ copies of the Erauenfahrplan '91
Total enclosed,_ __
Name _________________________________________________________ _
Address _______________________________________________________ _
BAS)'{S
ON
THE.
BEACHES
TO
) f3
AN[)OA)
HER.
SlAAJ~~T.
.,
": . .,.,t-.
10
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Upcoming Conferences and Workshops
Berlin Seminar, June 24-29, 1991
"LlTERATUR UND GESELLSCHAFT 1M NEUEN DEUTSCHLAND."--Lectures and discussions with
prominent authors and politicians from Germany.
Partial stipend covers 5-days lodging/meals at the host institution in the Grunewald section of
Berlin, lecture fees, sightseeing tour of Berlin.
Expenses to the participant: (1) Round-trip transportation
(2) $200.00 registration/administration fee.
Eligibility: Professors of German and History and/or related areas and graduate students.
For more information please contact (by March 21, 1991):
Dr. U.E. Beitter
Department of Foreign
Languages and Literatures
Loyola College
4501 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
"Tainted Greatness:
Antisemitism, Prejudice, and Cultural
Heroes"
Boston University, April 21-23, 1991
The conference will examine the role of prejudice in the thought and works of a number of great
artists and scholars of modern times, exploring ways in which these "tainted heroes" shape our
general frame of reference. How do we, in the post-Holocaust era, read the works of great
cultural figures who were marked with the stain of prejudice? How can we ignore the
denunciations of Jewish musicians published by Richard Wagner, the image of Heidegger in a
Nazi uniform, the antisemitic radio broadcasts of Ezra Pound, the WWII articles published in a
collaborationist Belgian newspaper by Paul de Man? The purpose of the conference is not to
disclose prejudice in these heroes--in most of the cases to be considered, that has already been
established--but rather to confront the ramifications of their canonization as heroes.
While the focus of the conference is on antisemitism, the issues pertain to the nature of
prejudice as a general catory. One of the sessions is dedicated to relating antisemitism to
misogyny and to various forms of racism.
Invited speakers of particular interest to Germanists include Sander Gilman (Jewish SelfHatred) and Allan Janik (Wjtlgenstejn's Vjenna).
Registration is $25. Sessions begin in the morning on Sunday, April 21, and end at midday on
Tuesday, April 23. For registration and housing information, contact:
I
11
Ms. Shoshana Larkey or Rabbi Joseph Polak
Hillel House, Boston University
233 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 353-3633
Also, Barbara Hyams is offering free accommodations (nights of April 20-22) to one or two
people. If interested, call her at (617) 628-6194 .
... and plan ahead for this one!
1t has just been announced that the AATG 1992 summer convention will be held in Baden-Baden.
Further details will undoubtedly follow.
Fellowships
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
SUSAN B. ANTHONY FELLOWSHIP
The Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Studies at the University of Rochester announces a
post-doctoral fellowship for a recipient of the Ph.D. in any discipline. Applicant's work should
be closely related to women's studies. The fellowship is for one academic year beginning
September 1991, with an option for a second year. The stipend is $24,000 yearly. A Susan B.
Anthony Fellow will work on a project, will be appointed in an existing academic department,
and will teach two courses during the year. Content is open, subject to the interests of the
Fellow and the needs of the Center. The courses will bridge a standard academic discipline and
women's studies (e.g., psychology of women, history of women, philosophy of feminism). Send
vita, a course proposal, three letters of recommendation, a 1-2 page project proposal, and
samples of published or unpublished work no later than February 1, 1991 to: Director, Susan
B. Anthony Center, University of Rochester 538 Lattimore Hall, Rochester, New York 14627.
An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F.
Requests for Project Assistance/Project Update
To: WIG friends
From: Nancy Kaiser
Date: December 23, 1990
RE: A Plea for Assistance
As many of you are aware, lam co-editing a volume of recent essays from feminist discussions
in the USA to appear in German translation. This has been my project and my obsession in the
last months because we are working rapidly in order to make the volume available to former
East German universities as (if?) they establish Women's Studies Programs. I am very excited
about the book and have appreciated the input and interest which many of you have offered and
showed. Now I have a real concrete request.
Enclosed are the projected table of contents and full citations for the items in the book. Note #7
in the table of contents: "Bibliographie ausgewahlter Schriften von Feministinnen aus den USA
I
12
in deutscher Obersetzung." There is unfortunately no totally reliable or inexpensive way to
compile such a bib.liography through library computer searches. Yet we feel that this would be
a very useful resource.
PLEASE HELPI I would appreciate bibliographies which some of you might have or individual
references which you may wish to call to my attention. Feel free to scrawl them on scraps of
paper or call and dictate them (I have no answering machine). I would need them as soon as
possible, so go for speed rather than comprehensiveness. It will be a selected bibliography, but
we are interested in individual essays in journals, anthologies, etc. as well as entire books. It is
a bibliography of work by feminists living in the USA which is already available in German
translation. Please note that I am not currently in Madison but at:
5570 Hampton St. #8
tel: (412) 361-6099
Pittsburgh PA 15206
Thank you in advance I
elsewhere/anderswo: Texte yon Femjnjstjnnen aus den USA
Eds. Nancy Kaiser and Peter BOthig. Berlin: BasisDruck Verlag, 1991.
(Projected table of contents:)
1. Vorwort (Kaiser I BOthig)
2. EinfOhrung (Kaiser)
3. Auftakt (Gedichte)
Negotiations
Adrienne Rich
On Life after Life
June Jordan
4. Postionen -- Perspektiven
Joan Wallach Scott
Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis
Barbara Christian
The Race for Theory
Teresa de Lauretis
Rethinking Women's Cinema: Aesthetics and Feminist
Theory
Review Essay: Feminism and Sexuality in the 1980's
B. Ruby Rich
Lesbian "Sex"
Marily Frye
Impartiality and the Civic Public: Some Implications of
Iris Marion Young
Feminist Critiques of Moral and Political Theory
5. Probleme -- Provokationen
Wendy Sarvasy and Fighting the Feminization of Poverty: Socialist-Feminist
Judith Van Allen
Analysis and Strategy
Linda Gordon
Family Violence, Feminism, and Social Control
Katha Pollitt
"Fetal Rights:" A New Assault on Feminism
Evelyn Torton Beck The Politics of Jewish Invisibility
Racism and Feminist Aesthetics: The Provocation of Anne
Leslie Adelson
Duden's "Opening of the Mouth"
6. Aufruf -- Ausblick
Poem about My Rights
June Jordan
bell hooks
feminism: a transformational politic
7. Bibliographie ausgewahlter Schriften von Feministinnen aus den USA in deutscher
Obersetzung
Getrud Jaron Lewis, Laurentian University, Canada, would like to report that she is working on
a book entitled: The Fourteenth Centucy Book of Sjsters--By Women. For Women. About
Women. This detailed account of the nine Dominican Convent Chronicles will also contain
lengthy text passages in English translation.
.'
13
Reports & Invitations from Allied Organizations
WISE Women's Studies
The WiG Steering Committee has been discussing whether we would like to join WISE as an
affiliate member organization. In the meantime, we are happy to share with you this
information as well as the opportunity to join individually.
FOUNDATION MEETING OF WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL STUDIES EUROPE (WISE)
On the 10th of November 1990 in Driebergen, The Netherlands, Women's International Studies
Europe (WISE), the first EC-initiated women's studies exchange network, was formally
constituted. Following five years of efforts by an international initiative group,
representatives from eleven European Community countries voted to accept a constitution whose
preamble defines the aims of WISE, a feminist studies organization, as promoting knowledge to
improve the quality of women's lives and supporting activities and groups seeking to establish
or extend women's studies teaching and research. The association is opposed to all forms of
discriminiation and oppression.
During the conference, participants met in subject-based workshops on: "Women, Science and
Technology," "Women's Work, Resources and State Policies," "Contemporary Feminism and Its
Strategies," "Cultural Practice and Communication," "Racism and Discrimination in Refugee
and Immigration Policies in Europe," and "Research on Violence." The activities initiated by
these subject divisions will form the basis of furture working papers, conference
presentations, and publications.
The first secretariat for WISE will be located in The Netherlands. For further information
contact: Dr. Erna Kas, Dutch Women's Studies Association, Heidelberglaan2, 3584 CS Utrecht,
The Netherlands. Phone: 31~30-531881/Fax: 31-30-531619; or Dr. Tobe Levin, Institut
fOr England- und Amerikastudien, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-UniversiUU, Kettenhofweg 130,
6000 Frankfurt am Main 60, Federal Republic of Germany. Phone: 49-69-459660.
MEMBERSHIP FORM FOR WISE
Name:
Address:
Phone:
Fax Number:
Field of study:
Position(s):
Field of Teaching:
Field of Research:
Other Activities Related to Women's Studies:
I will pay the membership fee:
___ 40,- OM ~--- high wagel
30,- OM ---- low wage
20,- DM ----student/unemployed
You are encouraged to pay by bank transfer: WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL STUDIES EUROPE
c/o Or. Tobe Levin, Frankfurter Sparkasse, BLZ 500 501 02, Kontonr. 107995011
I would like to participate in the following division(s):
_ women, science, technology
_ women's work, resources, state policies
_ contemporary feminism and its strategies
_ cultural practice and communication
_ racism and discrimination in refugee and immigration policies in Europe
research on violence
I would like to suggest a subdivision / new division in:
14
Unterschiede
ehemals FRAUEN tSCHULE
postfach 61 04 37
1000 Berlin 61
Einladung zur Subskription
Untersch;ede tritt mit der ersten Ausgabe, die Anfang 1991 erscheint, die Nachfolge der
Zeitschrift Frauen t Schule (1985 - 1989) an. Sie wird vierteljAhrlich erscheinen und
einem Umfang von etwa 60 Seiten haben. Herausgeber ist der Verein "Neue Bildungswege fOr
Frauen e. V." (Sitz: Berlin).
Die VorzOge einer Fachpublikation zu Anliegen der MAdchen- und Frauenbildung
verbindet sie mit denen der politische Einmischung. Schule bleibt ein zentrales Stichwort.
Damit bietet Untersch;ede eine im deutschsprachigen Raum einmalige Zusammensicht von
Bildungs- und Frauenpolitik.
Die Zeitschrift versteht sich als frauen- und bildungspolitisches sowie kulturelles
Forum besonderer Art, nAmlich als Offentlicher Ort und gedanklicher Raum dessen, was Frauen
als Frauen wollen und in die Tat setzen .. ·
Hier soli jenes vielgestaltige und verquere Eigene zur Sprache kommen, das in einer
vorwiegend auf Gleichheit und mAnnliche Anerkennung gerichteten (Frauen-) Politik den Status
einer peinlichen Wahrheit fristet: Ungleichheit zwischen den Geschlechtern - mehr als der
vielbeschworene "kleine Unterschied" erlaubt; Un-Gleichheit aber gerade auch zwischen
Frauen - ungewollte Unterschiedlichkeit, unangetastete Heikelkeiten, ungeahnte, ungenutzte
Reserven ...
Irene Stoehr, Eva-Maria Epple
-
~-----------.---------------------
o
I~ interes~ere.mich ~r die Arbeit des Verains ·Neue Bikilngswege fOr Frauen 8.V." und bit18 um Obersendung von Informationsmatenal (bltte Briefmarken fOr ROc:kporto - mind. 3,- OM - beilegen. VI8Ien Dank!)
O
Ich m~hte ~m Ve~n ·Neue Bildungswege fOr Frauen 8.V.· bei1re1Bn. (Dar Jahresbeitrag betrAgt 100 - OM' ermABigt 50OM • bIlte 8Ine Kople entsprechencter Nachweise beifOgen.)
'"
Vereinsmitglieder beziehen UNTERSCHIEDE leoelen"".
u~ u:"lserer Arbeit. in der gebotenen UnabhAngigkeit und mOglichst wirkungsllOlI nachgeh8n zu kO'ln8n bitten wir um Spenden in der
HOhe (Spendenqulttungen ab 100,- OM).
'
Spendenkonto
Neue Bildungswege fOr Frauen e. V. - Berliner Sparkasse
BLZ 100 500 00 - KID.-Nr. 104 000 88 08
Bi~ einsenden an. Neue Bildungswege fOr Frauen e.V., BOro I. Stoehr, Prinz-Friedric:h-LeopoId-S1r. 12., 1000 Berlin 38
V.I.S.d.P.: Irene Stoehr
J8'
15
CONFERENCE REPORTS
MLA 1990, WIG-sponsored sessions
Women Writing Men: Female Authors and Male Protagonists
"KARIN STRUCK'S INDICTMENT OF THE ADDICTIVE SOCIETY" BY INGO ROLAND STOEHR
1. NEW RELATIONSHIP
A detached, ironic, and playful turn from the monologues of literary complaints to dialogues
between men and women has evolved in recent literature by women writers. Even Karin
Struck, who once proclaimed the project of the "Great Erotic Mother" in Die Mutter (1975),
enters this dialogue with a male voice in her novel Bitteres Wasser (1988). The narrator,
Franz, is a recovering alcoholic and, in a political sense, a recovering patriarch. He tries to
come to terms with his own sexuality by always being aware of what he has been through. He
understands the shallowness of the usual images of masculinity and detests those men for whom
women are nothing but sexual objects--and he is ready to accept women as independent
individuals, even though he still occasionally feels threatened. In essence, Struck develops a
literary model of a sensitive man who has the potential to participate in an "interdependent"
relationship, as defined by Cancian in Love in America (1987).
2. PROJECTION
Such a new man is a projection of a (female) wish, while the existence of men in real life might
be quite different. However, the model for human relationships in Bitteres Wasser is in an
interesting balance, since the novel celebrates femininity and also puts a burden on man. In
sum, instead of polarizing masculinity and femininity, the novel rather formulates the
expectation that everybody needs to be integrated in an equalitarian way.
3. ADDICTIVE SOCIETY
It is particularly striking that Struck establishes a parallel between individual addiction, i.e.,
the narrator's alcoholism, and the de-personalizing infringements on the individual of a
teChnological mass society. In a male-dominated world, only the system benefits, not even the
male individual. What is usually called a patriarchal society has been identified by Anne Wilson
Schaef in When Society Becomes an Addict (1987) as the "Addictive System." Just as they are
described in Karin Struck's Bitteres Wasser, addictive structures are social structures and
need to be understood as such in order to change the basis of society from domination to
partnership.
"'ICH WAR VERKLEIDET ALS POET ... ICH BIN POETINII' THE MASQUERADE OF GENDER IN
ELSE LASKER-SCHOLER'S PROSE" BY MARY-ELIZABETH O'BRIEN
Else Lasker-SchOler created the imaginary figures Princess Tino of Baghdad and Prince Jussuf
of Thebes, which became her alter egos in both her daily life and prose works. A striking
element of her narrative prose is the fact that she initially spoke through a female voice but
rejected it later in favor of a distinctly male voice. My study demonstrates how LaskerSchOler's transition from a female to a male voice jn her prose is a narrative strategy to
empower the subject, elicit recognition, and gain access to a public forum. Tino and Jussuf
share a royal, foreign, and sexually ambiguous heritage which sets them apart from others.
Tino, however, is a powerless and nameless figure who renounces the Judeo-Christian tradition
of the demonic woman but ultimately succumbs to a foreign definition of the self. Jussuf, by
contrast, defends his individuality, claims his name, and resides in a domain where his name,
16
vision, and image are accepted. It was only by adopting the fictional male voice and
corresponding body that Lasker-SchOler could imagine herself as strong, active, and accepted.
This masquerade of gender proves to be problematic. While Jussuf's male identity allows him to
join with other men in a union predicated on similitude, he must eventually confront the woman
within himself. The incongruity of being a poetess and a prince, a woman and a man, results in
unresolved opposition, alienation, and self-annihilation of the alter ego. Lasker-SchOler's
attempt to transcend gender difference seemed doomed to fail, since her search for the authentic
self is based primarily on denial rather than exploration.
"BILD(ZER)STORUNG: ZU BRIGITTE BURMEISTER, ANDERS ODER YOM AUFENTHALT IN DER
FREMPE"; SYLVIA KLOETZER (U MASS-AMHERST)
Brigitte Burmeister, Autorin aus der DDR, veroffentlichte 1987 ihren ersten Roman:
Anders oder yom Aufenthalt in der Fremde. Der Text ist von einigen Kritikern in die Tradition
des nouveau roman (ab)gestellt worden, weil die Romanistin Brigitte Burmeister auf diesem
Gebiet gearbeitet hat, insbesondere zu Claude Simon und Nathalie Sarraute.
Burmeister ist jedoch, wie gezeigt werden kann, vie I entschiedener einer anderen
franzQsischen Autorin verpflichtet: Helene Cixous und deren Oberlegungen zur ecriture
feminine. Ihre Cixous-Rezeption bindet Burmeister in das literarische Projekt ihrer ejgenen
Literatur ein: Sie knOpft mit ihrem Roman an DDR-Erzahlungen und Romane an, deren
Textinteresse der problematischen (weiblichen) Individualitat gilt, dem in die Krise geratenen
(weiblichen) Individuum in einer real-sozialistischen (DDR)-Gesellschaft (vgl. Wolf u.a.).
Programmatisch heiBt es bei Brigitte Burmeister: Literatur solie "sich mit den
zurOckgedrangten und vernachlassigten Dingen befassen" statt Vorbilder, "Typisches" zu
entwerfen.
Ihre mannliche Ich-Figur, genannt "Anders", kann als Projektion einer ultimativen
real-sozialistischen Sozialisation gelesen werden: Sie kennzeichnet den AusschluB des
Weiblichen in Burmeisters Gesellschaft. Gegen diesen Verlust richtete sich Burmeisters Text:
Anders, zu Beginn des Romans als menschliche 'Fassade' vorgefOhrt, ein Wesen, das lebt urn zu
arbeiten , wird aus diesem "vorgezeichneten Muste(' gelost. Von besonderer Bedeutung ist
dabei die Funktion der Figur "Die Frau", die sich als das in Anders Ausgeschlossene und
UnterdrOckte lesen laBt. In der Begegnung mit "der Frau/der ihm/ihr abhanden gekommenen
Existenzweise gerat Anders aus der (Arbeits)Routine und fallt aus seiner Rolle.
Dabei dient Cixous' Konzeption von der Weiblichkeit der Schrift, ihrer Tendenz zur
Formlosigkeit, als bewegendes und subversives Moment des Textes: Anders, der sich in Texte der
Frau einschreibt, schreibt sich neu und wird neu geschrieben: als Vielheit.
In ihrer Cixous-Adaption geht Burmeister jedoch nicht Ober deren essentialistische
Frauenbilder hinaus: ihre weiblichen Figuren sind Zuarbeiterinnen fOr (ihre) Manner; fOr
ihre Gesellschaft, die in Erstarrung begriffen ist, stellen sie Heilung in Aussicht (die Ober die
DDR-Gesellschaft hinausweist). 1m Horizont jedoch, in dem Burmeisters Roman steht, namlich
seiner auf Widerstand gegen den Verlust von 'Weiblichkeit'/lndividualitat gerichteten
Zielsetzung, ware die Kritik dieser Frauenbilder erst ein zweiter Schritt und ginge Ober das
unmittelbare Romanprojekt hinaus.
"WOMEN WRITING MEN: CHRISTA WOLF' KEIN ORT. NIRGENDS."; KAMAKSHI P. MURTI
(UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA)
In discussing Kleist's Penthesilea Christa Wolf asks: "Warum aber kann-- oder muss-Kleist sein 'innerstes Wesen' ausdrOcken durch das Schicksal, durch den Mund einer Frau?"l
She locates the answer to this question in Kleist's sexuality, his painful yet proud stand outside
lChrista Wolf, Die Dimensionen des Autors, p.668.
I
17
of the norms governing male-female relationships, an isolation which prompts him to indulge
in mystifications, although, as Wolf points out, he is possessed by an irresistible longing to
reveal his innermost being to others. "Dieser Widerspruch regiert ... die geheimen Momente zur
Ausarbeitung der Penthesilea: Kleist's Ich in einer weiblichen Heldin."2 And herein is the clue
to Wolf's choice of Kleist in her work Kein Oft. Nirgends. (One could ask in her case: "Warum
muB Wolf ihr innerstes Wesen durch den Mund eines Mannes ausdrOcken?"): Kleist's ego
expressed through a woman like Karoline von GOnderrode, a human being of whom Wolf says:
"Der RiB der Zeit geht durch sie. Sie spaltet sich in mehreren Personen, darunter einen
Mann",3 thus providing the complimentarity Wolf seeks.
In the wake of post-modernist critical theories, research on Kleist has begun to uncover
a different, an alternative consciousness in this writer, under reductively formulaic
interpretations, one of the most ubiquitous being the attempt to impose unity on his writings by
subsuming them under hierarchically ordered pairs of abstract concepts. 4 But this attempt to
understand Kleist through a dialectic merely emphasizes the attempt on the part of an
androcentric society to inscribe him in its own patriarchal structures of power and knowledge.
Given the sexual limits, i.e., the ability to relate to only one sex, it is not surprising
that patriarchs like Goethe would wish to restructure Kleist to a less ambivalent form, more in
accordance and sympathy with their phallocentric ideals. Consequently, the myth of a Kleist who
would have had the makings of a Goethe, were it not for his perceived unfortunate psychopathic
character, has been perpetuated.
I will try to show how Wolf, in writing Kleist, uncovers this feminism in her work Kein
Oft. Nirgends., i.e., Kleist's attempt to "occupy the impossible, paradoxical position of the
middle ground, the ground left uncovered by the oppositional structure-- being both subject and
object, self and other, reason and passion, mind and body, rather than one or the other."S
Wolf, and through her reading of him, Kleist, attempt, through writing, to exist anew in
the world, outside of gynocritical or patriarchal discourses, perhaps by combining them to
produce a whole truth, the chemistry of which resists a breaking down ever again into its
constitutive elements. Wolf has suggested this fusion of discourses in her other works, of
course, but nowhere does it come as challengingly and unmistakably to the fore as in this work,
through a male and a female protagonist-- Heinrich von Kleist and Karoline von GOnderrode.
Kleist finds in GOnderrode an affirmation of himself. He says: "Wenn ich die Welt teilen woUte,
mOBt ich die Axt an mich seiber legen, mein Inneres spalten" (KON 85). In reality, it is the
world which splits Kleist into two halves and destroys him in the process, as it does GOnderrode.
The possibility of achieving the pronoun "wir" in the narrative space afforded by Wolf
is recognized by Kleist. In this hypothetical realm, powers of healing the division, the
fragmentation of the self are present. Kleist's initial lament that nature is at fault for having
split the human being into man and woman is countered by GOnderrode who reminds him that he
has the male and the female within himself, albeit antagonistically arrayed against each other. It
is the function of the humane being to overcome this antagonism. "Frau. Mann. Unbrauchbare
Warter." This is the ultimate release from fragmentation of the self. Ironically, it is only in
Kein Oft. Nirgends (= No place. Nowhere.-- a literal translation of the Greek word QlL(=no) and
topos (place), i.e., UTOPIA, thus restoring it to its original indeterminate state) that such an
"unlebbares Leben" can be lived (KON 108). Freed of spatial and temporal referentiality,
Kleist's and GOnderrode's pleasure in and with each another is synchronous with their
2Wolf, Die Dimensionen des Autors, p.668.
3Wolf, Die Dimensionen des Autors, p.569.
4 H.M. Brown, Kleist and the Tragic Ideal: A Study of "penthesilea" and its
Relationship to Kleist's personal and Literary Deyelopment 1806-1808
(Peter Lang 1977), p.11.
SGrosz, p. 101.
18
remembrance of this pleasure. Theirs is a model, a possibility for attaining perfection,
completion. Wolf ends the work with their laughter, uncontrolled and unmediated, and her last
sentence: "Wir wissen, was kommt" is also meant in this utopian sense of fulfillment. I believe
that what comes is not self-destruction, but rather a new lease on life achieved through one's
ability to see, which GOnderrode mentions ("Sie beg riff, wie manche Leute zur Sehergabe
kommen") (KON 106), and which finds its ultimate representation in Kassandra.
Dr. Theresa Hornigk of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin and
>F
respected Christa Wolf scholar will be participating in the German Studies
.)k ~
Association conference in Los Angeles, September 26-29. If you are interested
'L""y ~e, ;. in inviting her to your campus before or after the conferenc~, please contact
~/,,~~~~ Pam Allen or Barbara Mabee by early summer. We'll then organize a
~/ '{-<;~ tentative itinerary to present to Theresa for consideration and confirmation.
:{\~ \
o.-'}/
until May 1st:
until mid-June:
Pam Allen
1100 B Griffin Road
Clinton, NY 13323
(315) 859 - 4797
Barbara Mabee
Modern Languages and Literatures
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309
(313) 656 - 6888
tVA
VIJ..{1
VACATIONS .. ••
VICARIOUSL'Y •
fVADES
EPH1L41M
19
Reiseliteratur
und
utopische
Perspektiven
''TRAVELERS' VISIONS/IMMIGRANTS' REALITIES: AMALIE STRUVE AND AMALIE SCHOPPE IN
THE UNITED STATES"; LOR ELY FRENCH (PACIFIC UNIVERSITY)
For many mid-19th-century German women, the United States evoked an alluring image
of freedom and new opportunity. Especially for women forced into political exile after the 1848
Revolution, the U.S. represented a land where they could break out of traditional gender norms
restricting their public activities in Germany. My paper looks at the experiences of Amalie
Struve, who, exiled with her husband, decided to travel from England on to the U.S. with the high
hopes of finding a better life there. The paper compares and contrasts Struve's account of
AmericAn life with those of another German writer, Amalie Schoppe. When Schoppe decided in
1851 at the age of 60 to leave Germany, she was not faced with the threat of exile, and thus the
situation of her emigration was different than that of Struve. She did, however, share Struve's
idealized view of the U.S. as the land of vast opportunity and freedom.
Struve's and Schoppe's letters and reports back to Germany deserve more extensive
treatment than they have recieved, for they present valuable perspectives on women's lives in
19th-century America. My analysis is based on documents that have not been very accessible.
Struve wrote her perceptions from 1848-1851 in letters to the German writer Helmine von
Chazy, documents that are located in the Varnhagen Collection, now in the Jagiellonian Library
in Cracow, Poland. Schoppe's reports include personal letters to Ludmilla Assing, also located
in the Varnhagen Collection, and the two series of articles that she wrote for Cotta's
Morgenblatt: the four-part series "Transatlantische Skizzen," appearing beginning 21 May
1852, and the seven-part series "Korrespondenz-Nachrichten," appearing between 25 July
1852 and 25 June 1854.
First, analysis of these women's reports lends insights into how the categories of
women's immigrant and travel literature can intersect. Here, I rely on Elke Frederiksen's and
Tamara Archibald's definition of "Reiseliteratur," which includes "Reiseberichte, Reisebriefe,
... denen tatsachlich Reisen zugrunde liegen," which tends towards a "Vermischung von
Faktischem mit Fiktivem," and in which the authors convey personal experiences and
impreSSions as well as facts of a cultural, geographical, historical, or political nature (in:
Frederiksen, Elke, unter Mitarbeit von Tamara Archibald. "Der Blick in die Ferne: Zur
Reiseliteratur von Frauen." Frauen Literatur Geschjchte: Schrejbende Frauen yom Mjttelalter
bis zur Gegenwart. Ed. Hiltrud GnOg and Renate MOhrmann. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 1985:
104-122; quote from page 107). As immigrants, Struve and Schoppe entered the new country
with the expectations of eventually becoming successfully integrated, if even temporarily. Yet
they never felt totally part of American society, and thus they viewed social life, culture,
politics, and work there more from the perspective of a visiting observer.
Second, examining these travel documents investitgates further women's utopian vision
of travelling to the U.S. Instead of dismissing Schoppe's and Struve's travel reports as
unimportant and unrealistic, as several scholars have done, one should compare the women's
final impression of the U.S. with their initial expectations of life in the "land of opportunity" to
determine how the American image and women's realities in the U.S. coincided.
In their travel writings, both Struve and Schoppe imagined the U.S. as a free country in
which the individual could fulfill his or her dreams of success. They also both viewed the seeds
for change in attitudes toward women, whether those attitudes meant equal political rights of
more respect for intellectual pursuits, as being more likely to germinate in the U.S. than in
Germany. These common perceptions of life in the U.S., when matched with each woman's
individual social status, receive differing answers as to how that image coincided with reality.
Struve lived the life of an economically strapped intellectual who, in her personal life, felt the
discrepancy between her utopian image of America and how that image was carried out in
reality. Schoppe, as finacially secure, recognized, in her travels about in the Eastern states,
positive, individual attempts to maneuver out of the system, for example, in women making
20
their domestic work easier for themselves, improving their education autodidactically, or, as
servants, demanding higher wages for their work. Either way, the records on American life that
they sent back to Germany remain important documents in cross-cultural studies and reinforce
the need to look at the multifaceted experiences of women travelers.
(I would like to thank the DMD and the American Council of Learned Societies for grants to
conduct research for this paper. Also, I thank Janice Murray greatly for her help in locating
the published documents I used for this paper.)
The Ulrike Ottinger Retrospective
An Interview with Ottinger
(1972-1989)
SMITH COLLEGE, FEBRUARY 1991
Edited by Shanta Rao and Melinda Nuttin
On February 2, following the screening of Ottinger's latest film, Johanna D'Arc. a roundtable
discussion with Ottinger, moderated by Barton Byg, was held at Smith College. Ottinger spoke
about her films; about audience perceptions of her work; and about the reception of her films in
different cultural contexts. Reproduced here are selections from the hour long talk which
highlight Ottinger's vision of herself as an artist and her interest in the power of an artifical,
condensed style of representing reality, rather than what she terms the "naturalistic mode".
Included also is a personal response from Ottinger to questions about the numerous rejections
and appropriations of her work by feminist groups and by film critics.
Madame X (1977) is the story of the lesbian pirates of the shiP. Orlando. The film indulges
itself in a love of display, combining parodic stereotypes with elaborate costumes. The effect of
non-synchronous sound and the rebirth of murdered characters suggest the truth of slippage and
repetition in a highly stylized reality.
Question: Could you speak about how your career and the women's movement have at times
been at odds and then at other times more in harmony, especially around the film Madame X?
Ottinger: The first reaction to Madame X from the feminist movement. ... it was really the
group of ideological feminists who were against it. I think it was really too early to do a comedy
[laughter]. And then it changed, and now even these kind of groups appropriate this film for
their theories. In the first moment I was really shocked. I never expected this violent reaction
from women against this film. I feel that this film was not against them ...on the contrary. But
then I was reaUy against, in feminism, the ideological women's liberation movement, which
wanted to replace the laws, limits and borders for women with a new set of borders and limits
for women. It was clear that I was absolutely against this. After the first reaction, it [the
critical response] changed absolutely and they said it was not a political film. They didn't see
the the style and strategies in the film. It is important to be powerful. At that time it [the
discussion in the women's movement] was more an intellectual one, without any pleasure and
any fantasy. I think it [the early negative reaction] was more an aggression against the style,
which is baroque.
Q: What about the difficulty that Europeans and Americans do have in accepting the artificial in
your work? Is there a layer that you relate to as real, where the feelings of the character are
more real, rather than their presentation?
Ottinger: You see, the old forms of the theater were always not in realistic style. They were
always stylized; condensed artificial figures. I personally find this more interesting, espeCially
in our complex times. For me, reality is really complicated. Hollywood style films follow a
direct line from beginning to end without any complications. They ask always to do things more
and more simply and I think this is impossible. From these kinds of films the normal spectator
21
is used to a simplification of reality ... so they refuse not only by not thinking, but also they
refuse more complicated forms. You can do all kinds of things, you can do political statements,
you can do absolutely all kinds of things. And I think you can do the more complex things in an
interesting and artistic way. You don't have to stay in the naturalist mode. Our business is to
condense the problems, to transform them, and then show them again.
Q: What kind of relationship do you have with film theory, with psychoanalytic feminist
critiques of your work?
Ottinger: You understand, I am not a theorist. I do my films and I have a lot to do to realize my
films. But I am quite well informed about theory, though not as well as you ... but then it is your
profession to do it. I have not the eye for all these books. I am interested in psychoanalysis but
I am not so interested in the lacan direction. It is interesting also but it covers only one aspect
of my films and I think my films are richer. It is not so \fiorthwhile for the whole film because
I work with all kinds of tricks and a lot of irony in my films.
Ottinger was the first Westerner to obtain permission to film in Mongolia. The film Johanna
D'Arc of Mongolja (1989) reveals the startling range of Ottinger's interests as a filmmaker,
from an ironic surrealistic fictional mode, which provides a critique of Western society and the
cultural transference between East and West in her characteristiclly baroque style, to a weI/researched ethnographic vision, which presents the breathtaking beauty of the real Mongolia.
Q: Can you speak about the fact that it is the Westerner who is behind the camera and it is the
non-Western people who are being viewed as the object?
Ottinger: In general, you are right. But I think I work in a different way. I have so many
questions about my own culture. For me, it is more a question of cultural transfer, how the
contamination works from both sides. As an artist, I show in my film my point of view. But if
Hollywood went to Mongolia, they would have built asphalt roads. And even in the production, it
is so different a kind of thinking. I don't have this kind of thinking. I am in general interested
in art and culture, and I'm interested in what it is --culture-- and there are 500,000
different kinds of cultures. And there is not a value from outside to say this is a better or
higher or lower culture. So I don't have these values and you can see this also in the form of my
films. Johanna D'Arc is a film that is also about different forms of narration. You have older
forms of narration, like the epic styles in Mongolia. If Hollywood would go to Mongolia ... it would
be the "highlights" of this culture ... used as an exotic background, They would never use the
Mongolian language, never Mongolian time, never Mongolian music [as Ottinger does]. In the
form I give the time of the other culture and so the camera style also is different. With the
camera I give more distance, so it is more respectful.
Q: But you do seem to relate to the Mongolian landscape and people as real.
Ottinger: Of course, it is always a question ... what is real and what is not. Nothing is real,
finally, in a film.
Edited by Shanta Rao and Melinda Nutting
Brackets [] indicate additions from the editors for the purpose of clarification. Questions were
asked by various participants. The Goethe Institute sponsored the retrospective nationally.
Locally, sponsors included: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; University of Mass. Amherst;
Mount Holyoke, Smith, Amherst, and Hampshire Colleges; Pleasant Street Theater. Barton Byg,
U. Mass. German Department,served as the local coordinator of the retrospective.
22
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
WIG Members
Stephan, Inge und Sigrid Weigel, Hg. Die Marseillaise der Weiber. Hamburg: Argument Verlag.
In der Erkllirung der Rechte der Frau von 1791 heiBt es: "Die Frau wird frei geboren
und bleibt dem Manne ebenbOrtig in allen Rechten." Die Forderung nach Anwendung der
Menschenrechte auch auf die Frauen war eine "Kleine Revolution" in der "GroBen" -Ausgangspunkt fOr ein neues Selbstverstandnis, fOr politische und literarische
Aufbruchversuche und Befreiungsphantasien.
Der Band enthalt u.a. Beitrage zu Olympe de Gouges, zu dramatischen
Wirklichkeitsmustern, zum Corday-Mythos und zur Veranderung der Liberte zwischen
1798 und 1830.
Other Publications
Barrett, Michele. Das unterstellte Geschlecht: Umrisse eines marxistischen Feminismus.
Hamburg: Argument Verlag.
"Die Starke dieses Buches liegt in dem konsequenten Hinterfragen von Begriffen, die jede
von uns standig im Munde fOhrt. Was bedeutet Patriarchat? Was versteht Simone de
Beauvoir darunter, was Schulamith Firestone? Was bedeuten Klassenstrukturen fOr
Frauen?" Lesbenstich
Gallas, Helga, und Magdalene Heuser, eds. Untersuchungen zum Roman von Frauen um 1800
Ca. 240 Seiten mit 7 Abb. Kart. ca. DM 76.-. ISBN 3-484-32055-9. (Untersuchungen
zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte. Band 55)
Gassmann, Elisabeth, Hg. Archiv fOr philosophie-und theologie-geschichtliche
Frauenforschung. Bd. 3 (Johann Casper Eberti: Eroffnetes Cabinet DeB Gelehrten
Frauen-Zimmers, Franckfurth und Leipzig, 1706 und Schlesiens Hoch- und
Wohlgelehrtes Frauenzimmer, BreBlau, 1727.) MOnchen: ludicum Verlag, 1990.
Der Band bietet neben dem unveranderten Nachdruck der beiden Werke von J.C. Eberti
eine ihre Bedeutung erschlieBende grOndliche Einleitung der Herausgeberin und ein
ausfOhrliches Register zum "Cabinet." Johann Casper Eberti (1677-1760), Pastor
und Theologe im polnischen Zduny, stellt bio-bibliographisches Material Ober gelehrte
Frauen des Abendlandes vor. Die beiden Werke sind vor allem fOr die theologischphilosophische Frauengeschichtsforschung von reichem Gewinn, gerade was
Bibelauslegung, BibelObersetzungen und die Behandlung theologischer Themen durch
Frauen angeht, aber auch fOr die Erforschung des literarischen Schaffens von Frauen
bieten sie viel Material. Die Ambivalenzen und Zwiespaltigkeiten in Ebertis "Cabinet"
verdeutlichen, wie schwer das Umdenken selbst den Mannern fiel, die sich entschlossen
hatten. fOr die Gelehrsamkeit der Frauen offentlich einzutreten.
Haug, F. und K. Hauser, Hg. Angst der Frauen~ Hamburg: Argument Verlag.
Je mehr Ober Angst nachgedacht wird, desto mehr entschwindet der Gegenstand ins
Unbegriffene. Gerade weil Angst Oberall ist, laBt sie sich nirgends so recht verorten.
DaB sie politisch allgemein so aktuell ist und zugleich so strategisch bedeutsam fOr das
Frauenverhaltnis zur Welt, war den Autorinnen Grund, ein Forschungsprojekt zum
Themenkomplex zu beginnen. Diesem Vorhaben gemaB arbeiteten sie mit
Angsterfahrungen und schrieben eine Kritik zu Theorien Ober Angst.
Haug, Frigga. Sexualisierung der Korper. Hamburg: Argument Verlag.
"Ein ungemein kluger und nachdenklich machender Bericht einer Gruppe sozialistischer
Frauen Ober ihren kollektiven Versuch, die weibliche Sexualitat historisch und
gesellschaftspolitisch zu definieren." PsVcholoqie heute
I
23
Haug, F. und K. Hauser, Hg. Subjekt Frau: Kritsche Psychologie der Frauen 1. Hamburg:
Argument Verlag.
Oa kein Ort in der Gesellschatt ausgemacht wird, richten sich Frauen in Fluchtpunkten
ein, als die sie schlieBlich die Familie, das Private, den KOrper, das Alleinsein finden.
Frauen mOssen die Familie stOrzen, urn ihre PersOnlichkeit durchzusetzen.
Unabha.ngiger Frauenverband und Autonome Frauenredaktion, Hg. Ohne Frauen ist kein Staat zu
machen. Hamburg: Argument Verlag.
Oas erst gemeinsame Produkt der Zusammenarbeit von frauenbewegten Frauen aus der
OOR und der BRO, das Auskunft gibt Ober die gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeit, mit der
Frauen alltaglich Umgang haben.
Aus dem Inhalt: Wie alles anfing / Frauen haben kein Vaterland / Wie der Stern uns
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24
Book Review
Gallas, Helga, und Magdalene Heuser, Hg., Untersuchungen zum Roman von Frauen um 1800.
TObingen: Niemeyer, 1990. 219 S.
Nach Christine Touaillons Der deutsche Frauenroman des 18. Jahrhunderts (1919),
Helga Meises Die Unschuld und die Schrift (1983) und Lydia Schieths Die Entwicklung des
deutschen Frauenromans im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert(1987) ist dieser Band, eine
Sammlung von Vortragen auf einem Symposium in Bremen 1989, die vierte ausfOhrlichere
Studie zum Frauenroman des 18. Jahrhundets. Die Einleitung verspricht einen Beitrag zu einer
"Untersuchung der deutschen Romane von Frauen im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert, auf
breiterer Basis als bisher mOglich durchgefOhrt und unter BerOcksichtigung literatur- und
frauengeschichtlicher Traditionszusammenhange und deren Wechselwirkung" (7). FOnf der
Beitrage behandeln allgemeinere "Probleme des Romans von Frauen urn 1800"
(Inhaltsverzeichnis) und neun einzelne Autorinnen undloder Werke. 1m Anhang finden sich
kurze Biographien der Romanautorinnen und ein Mitarbeiterlnnenverzeichnis.
Bereits die Einleitung spricht verschiedene Probleme an, die wohl die gesamte Literatur
von Frauen dieses Zeitraums betreffen: die schwierige Quellenlage, die Anzahl anonymer und
pseudonymer Ver6ffentlichungen, und die Vorurteile gegen weibliches Schreiben, die uns heute
die Forschung derart erschweren. Dankbarerweise wird auch angegeben, was dagegen
unternommen wird, z. B. eine Bibliographie zum Frauenroman des ausgehenden 18. und
beginnenden 19. Jahrhunderts mit aktuellen Standortnachweisen, die voraussichtlich noch
dieses Jahr erscheint.
Die Beitrage selbst bieten eine erstaunliche Vielfalt von Ansatzen, Ideen und Anregungen.
Ruth KlUger auBert sich "Zum AuBenseitertum der deutschen Dichterinnen" (13) uns stellt
interessante Thesen zur weiblichen Geistesgeschichte auf, die diese in einen direkten Gegensatz
zur mannlichen setzt. Sie sieht das protestantische BOrgertum des 18. Jahrhunderts als fOr
mannliche Dichter und Denker befreiend, fOr weibliche hingegen einengend, findet mehr
namhafte Schriftstellerinnen in katholischen oder adligen Kreisen und schlieBt daraus, die
weibliche Geistes- und Literaturgeschichte mOsse anders geschrieben werden als die mannliche.
Erich SchOn gibt einen Oberblick Ober "Weibliches Lesen: Romanleserinnen im spaten 18.
Jahrhundert" (20) und stellt fest, daB sich das Lesepublikum des Romans fast ausschlieBlich
aus Frauen rekrutiert, so daB es zumindest "von der Rezeption her kaum andere als
Frauenromane gibt" (23). (Mit demselben Argument, d. h. "Frauenroman= jeder Roman,
begrOnden die Hg. das etwas umstandlichere "Roman von Frauen" im Tite!.) Helga Brandes
liefert handfeste Fakten Ober die Beziehung zwischen "Frauenroman und literarischpubliziste[r] Offentlichkeit" (41), wobei sie sich auf Frauenromane in/und Zeitschriften
konzentriert. Magdalene Heuser untersucht Romanvorreden auf "Poetologische Reflexionen"
(52), und Helga Gallas stellt sich "Zur Trennung von Liebe und Sexualitat" (66) die Frage,
warum Romanautorinnen die inzwischen entfallenen Hindernisse einer Liebesehe kOnstlich
wiederaufbauen und ihre Heidinnnen in die Entsagung zwingen.
Ebenso an- und aufregend ~esen sich die Beitrage zu einzelnen Autorinnen. Helga Meise
beschreibt Maria Anna Sagars Die verwechselten rochter, Barbara Becker-Cantarino
kommentiert die "Freundschaftsutopie" (92) im Werk der Sophie von La Roche. Lydia Schieth
analysiert den Bestseller Elisa oder das Weib, wie es sein sollte und wundert sich Ober die
unzureichenden und widersprOchlichen Angaben zur Autorin Caroline von Wobeser (die
asllerdings bei Frauen des 18. Jahrhunderts eher die Regel als die Ausnahme ist). Nach
ausfOhrlicher Detektivarbeit schlieBt sie auf die MOglichkeit, "daB die Autorin des Romans [ ... J
nur als mannliche Konstruktion existiert" (121), eine Konstruktion, die "Unter dem
Deckmantel der Anonymitat [ ... ] ein konservatives Frauenleitbild [ ... ] installieren" so lite
(131). Susanne Zantop beschaftigt sich mit dem Phanomen "Frauen als SpatzOnder" und
untersucht Friedericke Helene Ungers FrOh- und Spatwerk auf die These hin, daB erst die
25
Unabhangigkeit des fortgeschrittenen Alters (die soziale, die finanzielle, die groBere
Unabhangigkeit von Rollenerwartungen) ihr und anderen Schriftstellerinnen eine gewisse
"Radikalisierung" ermoglichte. Jeannine Blackwell untersucht die "Verbindung zwischen
Phantasie und Geschichtsschreibung" (148) im Werk der Benedikte Naubert; Donatella Gigli
analysiertKaroline von Wolzogens Agnes von Lilien; Uta Treder beschreibt Sophie Mereaus
Amanda und Eduard als schriftlichen und moglicherweise autobiographischen Versuch, geistige
und erotische Emanzipation miteinander zu kombinieren. Anita Runge beschreibt ein Paradox
im Werk der Caroline Auguste Fischer, die zwar ein weibliches Kunstmodell entwarf, das eigene
Werk aber nicht als Kunstwerk betrachten konnte. Brigitte Leuschner schlieBlich stellt
Therese Huber als Briefschreiberin vor.
Obwohl der Band keine zusammenhangende Geschichte des Romans von Frauen in diesem
Zeitraum liefern kann oder will, lassen sich doch Zusammenhange erkennen. Viele Beitrage
erganzen einander in erstaunlicher Weise. Ein roter Faden, der sich durch das Ganze zieht, ist
z. B. die verschiedentlich angesprochene These, daB nur ein gewisses MaB an Anpassung an das
patriarchalische System vie len Frauen das Schreiben ermOglichte. Daraus ergibt sich die oft
anonyme oder pseudonyme VerOffentlichung, eine inhaltliche und formale Konventionalitat im
Werk selbst, und die zahllosen Entschuldigungen fOr das Geschriebene oder das Schreiben
Oberhaupt, die Heuser in Romanvorreden analysiert. Von dieser Situation gehen die meisten der
hier gesammelten Beitrage aus. Statt von den Autorinnen Progressivitat oder emanzipatorische
Ansatze zu verlangen (fOr die es ebenfalls Beispiele gibt), wird die "konservative"
Schreibweise vieler Autorinnen neu gelesen, neu geschatzt und neu interpretiert, meist als
Preis fOr Offentlichkeitsarbeit Oberhaupt. Wie Zantop es so passend ausdrOckt, diente das
"Tugendkorsett" der Autorinnen Ihnen gleichzeitig "als ROstung" (147).
Aile Beitrage sind gut dokumentiert, in einem leserfreundlichen Stil geschrieben, der
sich vom Oblichen Akademikerdeutsch wohltuend unterscheidet, und vor allem: sie machen auf
die Autorinnen und Werke neugierig. Fast bei jedem Beitrag hatte ich den Wunsch, die
Originaltexte zu lesen, von denen ich die meisten (noch) nicht kenne (mein Forschungsgebiet ist
Dramen von Frauen aus demselben Zeitraum). Das allein halte ich fOr einen beachtenswerten
Beitrag zur Frauenforschung. Frauen- und Romanforscherlnnen kann ich den Band nur
weiterempfehlen: ein Buch, das zum Weiterlesen, -denken und -forschen anregt--ein Buch,
wie es seyn sollte.
--Susanne Kord, University of Cincinnati
CR.ITfCS)
LAI
tHILLS
CUBA.
ouT
26
PERSONALS
Congratulations to WIG members Jeannine Blackwell and Michael Jones on the birth of their
100% WIG daughter Bettina Blackwell Jones, who was born on February 5, 1991. Jeannine,
who is recovering from complications and a ceasarian section delivery, reports that Bettina is
healthy and cheerful.
Barbara Hyams (of recent "Do-Bee" fame) has a new two-year position (as of 6/1/91) as
Resident Director of the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS) progam at Humboldt
Universit~t, Berlin. If your students are potentially- interested in summer-, quarter-,
semester- or year-long (beginning - advanced language, international relations, and culture)
programs in Berlin, please call Barbara at (617) 628-6194 (or write to her at 359 Highland
Ave., West Somerville, MA 02144), between now and Junel She also encourages all Wiggies
travelling through Berlin in the next several years to drop by for a visit. Berlin address
forthcoming I
Congratulations to Leslie Morris, who has recently accepted a tenure-track appointment at Bard
College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York!
DfVILISH
be.LIG.HTS.
DtLIJ'tlOUSlY
IN
nINeS
CA"ITtlAlA.
CA R.. OL.I.Nf
CAvOae.TS
c.. LAN t>e STI.AJE LY