Fall 2000 Book Reviews

Editor: Magda Mueller
E-Mail: mmueller@csuchico.edu
Deptartment of Foreign Languages
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA 95929-0825
Phone: 916-893-0361

Submissions policy: Books reviewed should be relevant to feminist criticism in the field of German and Comparative Studies. Reviews of books by single authors should not exceed 600 words. Reviews of books by multiple authors should not exceed 900 words. Unsolicited reviews will be published on a space-available basis.

Fiddler, Allyson, Ed. ëOtherí Austrians: Post-1945 Austrian Womenís Writing. Bern: Peter Lang, 1998. 247 pp. $52.95.

This collection of essays has its origins in an international conference on post-WWII Austrian womenís writing, held at the University of Nottingham in April 1996. As editor Allyson Fiddler notes, the volumeís ìfemale monopolyî (emphasis original) serves notice that ëOtherí Austrians is not intended as a universal study of postwar Austrian literature, but should be understood as an attempt to redress an imbalance wrought by decades of postwar essayistic compilations focused on Peter Handke and Thomas Bernhard.

As ëOtherí Austrians attests, the breadth of styles and themes characterizing postwar Austrian women authors makes selection of writers and topics, as well as locating a suitable organizing principle, somewhat challenging. With twenty essays, in addition to the introduction by the editor, this compilation covers a good deal of ground, since many contributors have taken up the invitation issued in the call for papers to investigate parallels with male Austrian writers and/or German women writers. This dimension, in many ways, is this projectís particular strength. Petra Bagley examines the educational influences of convent schools in the autobiographically-inspired texts of Barbara Frischmuth, Brigitte Schwaiger, and Jutta Richter, thereby adding a new perspective to scholarship on Frischmuth and the convent-school theme. Another discussion by Hubert Lengauer focuses primarily on Margit Schreiner and considers in contrastive excursus Marie-ThÈrËse Kerschbaumer and Marlen Haushofer, to examine how their constructions of childhood are informed by the dual perspectives offered in a childís protracted view of timeís passing and the adultís retrospective optic. In exploring the strategies for representing incest and abuse, Janet Wigmore sheds light on how Elizabeth Reichart and Marlen Haushofer subvert patriarchal texts (the Bible, Greek legend and mythology, and fairy tales) through intertextual strategies, including the dialogic juxtapositioning of textual fragments to emphasize their anti-woman bias. Although Frischmuth, Schwaiger, Haushofer, Reichart, Anna Mitgutsch, and other well-known authors like Bachmann and Jelinek serve as subjects of analysis here, several lesser-known writers are represented as well, pointing to another strength in this collection. With Susan Tebbuttís essay on Ceija Stojkaís autobiographical writings on the persecution of the Roma/Gypsies, Andrea Reiterís examination of Ruth Beckermannís treatment of Jewish-Austrian identity (as compared with Lea Fleischmann and Chaim Noll), and with Andrea Hammelís analysis of Hilde Spielís multicultural reckoning with the pastóíOtherí Austrians is genuinely inclusive of Other(s).

Given the eclecticism and range characteristic of many a conference proceedings, ëOtherí Austriansí diversityómost often topical and not methodologicalómight be viewed as a response to the wealth of material, which would appear to obviate the need for any critical attempt at theoretical, historical, or methodological cohesion or uniformity. However, the problem that mars this undertaking lies in the assertion, as the editor formulates it, that the contributions ìdemonstrate the heterogeneous nature of womenís writing and the methodological pluralism which is the hallmark of contemporary womenís studiesî (13). The demonstration of this ìheterogeneous natureî merely by including diverse topics and a variety of works brings into starker focus the impossibility of accomplishing this aim without substantive delineation of this objective in theoretical and methodological terms. Given this vague overarching conceptualization, the individual contributors are not necessarily to be faulted for failing to inform on this account. Thus, while some essays are solid in their theoretical sophistication and contribute to research efforts exploring the heterogeneous nature of postwar literature already well underway (many published by Ariadne, Lang, and B–hlau), others remain more traditional in their approach to the material and never move beyond thematic summary to actually illustrate this heterogeneous quality and how particular theoretical approaches and methodologies contribute to an understanding of this hybridity.

These criticisms notwithstanding, several contributions address the complexity of postwar womenís writing in the manner the subject requires. Among the noteworthy essays are Margaret Littlerís ìThe Cost of Loving: Love, Desire, and Subjectivity in the Work of Marlen Haushoferî and Andreas Kramerís ìInszenierungen des unendlichen Gespr”chs: Zu Friederike Mayr–ckerís langer Prosa.î Both Littler and Kramer use critical frameworks to elucidate the difficulty in categorizing Haushofer and Mayr–cker. Littler offers a reading of Die Wand (1963) and Die Mansarde (1969) enriched by intriguing comparisons with Anne Dudenís Ðbergang (1982) and Das Judasschaf (1985) from the perspective of Irigarayís ethical subject. Littler examines evidence of those ìspecific forms of female desireî (212) inevitably sacrificed to the constraints of socialization that points to more hopeful examples of a ìradical female subjectivityî (as defined by Sigrid Weigel in Die Stimme der Medusa, 99). Where Duden reveals the body as an irreducible site of suffering that refuses to relinquish memories of suffering and brutality even when the mind on some more rational level has processed these experiences, Haushofer suggests a form of ìWahnsinnî that can be equated with ìVernunftî as well as opposed to it. For the protagonist in Die Mansarde, for example, body-memories invariably return in the form of repressed recollections, compelling reflection on the extent to which ìVerdr”ngungî is crucial to survival. By highlighting how these suffering and deformed female subjectivities are linked to the critique of Enlightenment rationality and articulate a positive ethical relationship to the world, Littler sheds light on the development of survival strategies for coping with the incommensurability of feminine existence to masculine Western rationality. Another writer who thematizes the contradictions of feminine existence is the subject of Kramerís insightful analysis. Kramer draws on Moritz Baþlerís Entdeckung der Textur (1994) to offer a nuanced reading of Mayr–ckerís paradoxical and oppositional narrative style, which insistently rejects a conventional linguistic usage that would impose hierarchic order, causal connections, and psychological coherence. By asking how and in which expressive mode Mayr–ckerís prose is narrated, Kramer offers a repositioning of Mayr–cker as one whose work is better understood against the horizon of poststructuralist discourses in its exploration of language, the limits of form, and experimental vision. With these readings, Littler and Kramer articulate precisely what elements among the many constitute the heterogeneous qualities of post-WWII womenís writing, and consider the implications of these qualities for the writing process itself, its nature and functions in the broader postwar context.

To assist those undertaking the task of uncovering relevant information on individual authors, works, and narrative strategies, this edition would have benefited from a subject index. Considering that the editorís introduction notes several substantive connections among the contributions (including the themes of feminine collusion, alienation, fascist mentality, the Austrian reckoning with the past), an indexing of these topicsóand those related to narrativityówould have enhanced this volumeís usefulness. This suggestion is germane in view of recent reassessments of several authorsí works in light of poststructuralist and post-colonial theoretical frameworks, marking a self-reflexive turn that has increasingly yielded insight into the literary treatment of womenís experiences of fascism.

In sum, this volume will prove useful to graduate students and scholars requiring a lucidly written and varied range of commentaries exploring the works of prominent and increasingly recognized women authors of postwar Austria. Although this anthology in places offers little more than an account of a conference proceedings on what is unarguably a vital topic, ëOtherí Austrians: Post-1945 Austrian Womenís Writing is best appreciated as a perceptive and stimulating conversation about women authors in an era in which literatureóaccording to some critical consensusóis losing its position as a focal point for expressing the shared concerns of a society.

Diethe, Carol. Towards Emancipation. German Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century. New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1998. 214 pp. $12.95 paperback

Frau kann sich nur ¸ber dieses Buch freuen! Besonders diejenigen unter uns, die auch Womenís Studies unterrichten, werden mit Dankbarkeit dieses B¸chlein auf die studentischen Leselisten setzen. Ganz besonders sch”tzenswert sind die realgeschichtlichen Bez¸ge, die die literarischen K”mpfe und Errungenschaften der vorgestellten Autorinnen aus einem rein Germanistischen Blickwinkel herausheben.

Der Band gruppiert die Lebensbeschreibungen in sechs thematisch organisierte Kapitel samt einer hilfreichen Einf¸hrung und einem ausblickenden Epilog. Die sechs Kapitel sind folgendermaþen angeordnet: 1 Romantic Legacy (Henriette Herz, Rahel von Varnhagen, Caroline de la Motte FouquÈ, Bettina von Arnim); 2 Weimar Connections (Johanna Schopenhauer, Adele Schopenhauer, Ottilie von Goethe, Annette von Droste-H¸lshoff); 3 The 1848ers (Fanny Lewald, Johanna Kinkel, Malwida von Meysenbug); 4 Popular Literature (Ida von Hahn-Hahn, Eugenie Marlitt, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach); 5 The Woman Question (Louise Otto-Peters, Hedwig Dohm, Helene B–hlau); 6 In Nietzscheís Shadow (Gabriele Reuter, Lou Andreas-SalomÈ, Franziska zu Reventlow). Jedem Kapitel sind einleitende Bemerkungen vorangeschaltet, die die nachgestellten Personen begr¸ndet miteinander in Bezug bringt. Die angeh”ngte Bibliographie ist mehr als ausreichend f¸r einen Einstieg in die Werke der Autorinnen; Aufs”tze sind nicht noch einmal extra aufgef¸hrt, da sie bereits reichlich als Fuþnoten in den jeweiligen Kapiteln erscheinen.

Lobenswert ist auch die anscheinend bewuþt gew”hlte Distanz zu spezifischen feministischen oder theoretischen ìLagernî: Extreme Positionen der Sekund”rliteratur werden vermerkt und annotiert, jedoch nicht gebrandmarkt, was erfrischend ist. Hilfreich besonders f¸r studentische LeserInnen sind wiederholte Verweise auf eine m–gliche Verf”rbung der ëNachgeborenen-Brilleí eine/r LeserIn, will sagen, daþ vorschnelle Urteile ¸ber die ìfeministische Leistungî einer besprochenen Person besser unterbleiben, bis die Ðberwindung der historischen Erschwernisse LeserIn bekannter sind (z.B. das Ÿrgernis konstanter Familienunterbrechungen, wenn die zwar ledige Autorin immer wieder auf Krankenpflege- und Kinderversorgungseins”tze innerhalb der Familie verschickt wird, und angefangene literarische Arbeit so liegenbleibt, wie so oft im Falle der Droste-H¸lshoff). Damit verbunden ist auch Diethes Bem¸hen, die N”he oder Ferne der jeweiligen Autorin zu zeitgen–ssischen politischen Frauenthemen oder-bewegungen zu vermitteln. Auch dies geschieht historisch ”uþerst sorgf”ltig, behutsam und mit dem Versuch, jeder gerecht zu werden. Des weiteren verzichtet Diethe auf die besondere Heraushebung einiger (z.B. traditionell Bettina von Arnim, und seltener erw”hnt Caroline de la Motte FouquÈ) zu Lasten anderer, so daþ eine fairere Gewichtung erm–glicht wird. Trotz aller angestrebter Objektivierung soll nicht der Eindruck erweckt werden, dieser Band langweile durch einen Mangel an Anekd–tchen (allen Himmeln sei Dank) und einer nebul–sen Einstellung, mitnichten LeserInnen, die mit einer bestimmten Autorin besonders vertraut sind, m–gen die eine oder andere Gewichtung innerhalb der selten 15 Seiten erreichenden Darstellungen beanstanden, aber ansonsten ist an dieser erfreulichen Sammlung wirklich nichts zu bekritteln!

Von Meding, Dorothee. Courageous Hearts: Women and the Anti-Hitler Plot of 1944. Trans. Michael Balfour and Volker R. Berghahn. Providence: Berghahn Books, 1997, 213 pp. $19.95 paperback.

Courageous Women, a collection of interviews with the wives and confidantes of the men involved in the attempt on Hitlerís life on 20 July 1944, is a womanís and journalistís daring venture into an area exhausted by research and controversy. Though Dorothee von Meding concedes that ìonly in a very limited sense is this a book for historians,î (206) historians would fare well in reading and teaching this book. Paying attention to the women of 20 July who took responsibility for their husbandsí deeds and lived through the aftermath of the failed Attentat, von Meding revisits the most famous incident of resistance with a focus on Alltagsgeschichte, which makes for engaging and revealing reading. While the males were plotting Hitlerís assassination, their affluent wives took charge of providing a supportive home, a family refuge free of fear and indoctrination. But von Meding suggests that the womenís spiritual and physical dedication to their husbandsí activities, their care for the children, their input in conversations, and their everyday courage was an indispensable component of the resistance.

Most of the women interviewed had limited, if any, information of their husbandsí involvement in the resistance, though some, such as Freya von Moltke and Marion von York, knew the Kreisau members and occasionally participated in discussions. Only one woman in the book, Margarethe von Hardenberg, took an active part in the resistance by typing and copying plans for the coup. But life before 20 July was only one part of these womenís opposition: After the assassination had failed, the women of 20 July relentlessly tried to obtain visiting permits, related valuable information and even smuggled secret messages to their imprisoned husbands. According to the Nazi rule of Sippenhaft, wives were held accountable for their husbandsí ìcrimes,î thus many of the women were imprisoned for several months while their children were taken away. After having suffered from this retaliation, the women of 20 July equally faced the victorsí repercussions. For example, many women had to undergo ìde-Nazification,î and initially were not entitled to any pensions since their husbands had been convicted of a ìcrime.î The tide had turned in the 1950s; now the men of 20 July were celebrated as heroes in the desperate search for token examples of resistance. Later, they increasingly became the objects of controversy and criticism.

While their deceased husbands always stood in the limelight either worshipped or criticized, the women of 20 July remained in the shadow, even though resistance had dramatically changed their lives. Working against the stereotype that the events of 20 July are the history of men, von Meding asks: ìWhat did the women of 20 July contribute to the resistance against Hitler?î (xi) The interviews present multiple and diverse answers to this question but foremost reveal that these womenís resistance was more covert and inconspicuous, not as publicized, and certainly never worshipped.

Prefaced with a Foreword by Klemens von Klemperer and a general Introduction, von Meding portrays eleven interviewees ranging from Emmie Bonhoeffer to Countess Nina Schenk von Stauffenberg and introduces each one with a short biography. After having analyzed all conversations with the help of a psychoanalyst and an historian, von Meding abridged the interviews to their current form and wrote a final comment in the Afterword. A Glossary of the German terms concludes the volume. Von Medingís questions aim for details, for personal anecdotes such as how these women met their husbands so that the reader begins to see eleven colorful personalities, with rich background not visible in history books on the topic. Though her questions prove to be persistent, von Meding never becomes confrontational but emerges as a careful and sensitive interviewer who does not gloss over the great differences among the women or areas of dispute.

The interview with Freya von Moltke is a particularly interesting yet in certain ways representative example of other dialogues in the book. Helmuth von Moltke, who had always resisted the Nazi rule but was opposed to an Attentat, ultimately shared the same fate of the other ìconspirators.î In von Medingís interview, Freya von Moltke, who was quite involved in the Kreisau circle, openly shares her worry, distress, and bitterness about her husbandís death, but also voices her ways of coming to terms with it. As she concludes: ìI regret not having gone as far as they did [the members of the Red Orchestra resistance]. But that was what I was like. I regret it but perhaps if I had acted like them I would no longer be alive, and I am a sufficiently normal woman to have wanted to stay alive for the sake of my two sons.î (69) Von Moltkeís attitude resembles a general way of thinking among the women of 20 July. Being focused on their husbands and their families, these women regard their own involvement with extreme modesty, and leave us to question common notions of resistance. In contrast to their famous husbands, these women emerge neither as active resistance fighters nor as glorified heroines but as living examples of civil courage. Thus, all interviews lead to one truly relevant and pressing question: What is Widerstand?

Other questions raised in the interviews concern the legacy of 20 July. Freya von Moltke maintains that the hero worship of her ìordinaryî husband in postwar Germany became a burden to her sons, while Barbara von Haeften contends with outrage that in the 1950s, the names of their husbands were used in support of rearmament. Here von Medingís questions could go even further, could perhaps problematize the desperate need for resistance fighters within Germanyís Vergangenheitsbew”ltigung, and ask how indeed the second generation of the 20 July coped with fathers elevated on pedestals larger than life. ìAnd I have been trying ever since to take him down from this pedestal,î von Moltke asserts (80). Medingís interviews certainly help to dismantle the icons of 20 July. This book resists stereotyping, juxtaposing men and women, and valorizing, and takes into account social status and class of the families questioned. Courageous Women, touching without becoming kitsch, promotes a discussion of the nature and value of Widerstand, as well as an examination of the impact of 20 July on Germanyís Vergangenheitsbew”ltigung. I would recommend to anyone teaching the events of 20 July to include a couple of these interviews.

Cosner, Sharon, and Victoria Cosner. Women under the Third Reich. A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. 224 pp. $55 hardcover.

In diesem Nachschlagwerk sind in alphabetischer Folge nach dem Namen geordnet biographische und bibliographische Informationen zu bekannten und weniger bekannten Frauen zu finden, deren Lebensl”ufe durch den Nationalsozialismus signifikant ver”ndert wurden. Diese inklusive Definition impliziert keinesfalls nur Gegnerinnen des Nationalsozialismus, sondern informiert auch ¸ber Frauen, die den Nationalsozialismus aktiv unterst¸tzten oder als Symphatisantinnen eingestuft werden k–nnen. Diese durch das Ph”nomen des Nationalsozialismus gepr”gten Frauenóalso Gegnerinnen sowie Unterst¸tzerinnen aller politischen Schattierungenókamen aus unterschiedlichen L”ndern und verschiedenen Lebenszusammenh”ngen. Einige waren Spioninnen, andere Widerstandsk”mpferinnen oder politische Aktivistinnen, die gegen den Nationalsozialismus auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen agierten.

Dem Band sind ein ìAppendix A: Rolesî und ein ìAppendix B: Country of Originî beigef¸gt. Im ìAppendix A: Rolesî werden einige dieser Frauen in unterschiedlichen Rubriken aufgef¸hrt, die ihre politische Zuordnung erlauben und die auch Auskunft ¸ber ihren Beruf geben. Daher sind einige Operns”ngerinnen und Schauspielerinnen nicht nur unter ìPerforming Artistsî gelistet, sondern erscheinen wiederum in der Rubrik ìNazis and Nazi Sympathizerî -- wie beispielsweise im Fall von Emmy Goering. Somit sind also in der Rubrik ìPerforming Artistsî so verschiedene Frauen wie die Antifaschistinnen Marlene Dietrich, Therese Giehse und Erika Mann neben der Nazi Emmy Goering zu finden. Obwohl dieses Nebeneinander durchaus gerechtfertigt ist, befremdet es im ersten Moment. Aber sicherlich, es ist egal, auf welcher Seite des damaligen politischen Spektrums sie standen, ihr Leben wurde durchaus durch den Nationalsozialismus entscheidend gepr”gt. Offensichtlich wollten Shaaron und Victoria Cosner durch diese Mehrfachlistung die Ðbersichtlichkeit des Bandes garantieren und die erste Orientierung der LeserIn so weitgehend wie m–glich erleichtern. Das erreichen sie auch.

Im ìAppendix B: Country of Originî findet sich neben den USA, der UdSSR und den europ”ischen L”ndern auch die Rubrik ìPrussiaî. Darin sind zwei Frauen gelistet: Die Widerstandsk”mpferin Ruth von Kleist (1867-1945) und die Untergrundk”mpferin Elisabeth von Thadden (1890-1944). W”hrend man im Falle von Ruth von Kleist eine spezifische Auflistung unter einer Rubrik ìPrussiaî gegebenenfalls rechtfertigen k–nnte, da sie 1867 ñ also vor der Gr¸ndung des deutschen Reiches geboren wurde ñ ist diese Erkl”rung jedoch bei Elisabeth von Thadden keinesfalls zureichend.

Die L”nge der Beitr”ge zu den einzelnen Frauen ist durch die vorhandenen Informationen bestimmt. Daher sind einige lang, w”hrend andere nur kurz und knapp sein k–nnen. Nicht von jeder Frau gibt es ein Foto, doch die abgedruckten vermitteln auch von den weniger bekannten Frauen einen lebendigen Eindruck. Hilfreich zur weiterf¸hrenden Information sind auch die bibliographischen Hinweise in den einzelnen Beitr”gen und die umfassende Bibliographie am Ende des Bandes. Zu begr¸þen ist auch der die Orientierung erleichternde Index. Durch ihre inklusive Auflistung von Frauen aller politischer Richtungenóalso von GegnerInnen und Unterst¸tzerinnen sowie von Frauen unterschiedlicher nationaler Identit”tógelingt es Shaaron und Victoria Cosner, die komplexen Bezugssysteme im Nationalsozialismus bereits im Appendix anzudeuten. Selbstverst”ndlich ist Women under the Third Reich. A Biographical Dictionary in der vorliegenden Form noch lange kein umfassendes Forschungsergebnis. Aber es ist ein wesentlicher und notwendiger Anfang, und der Band sollte in keiner Bibliothek fehlen.

Hornscheidt, Antje, Gabriele J”hnert and Annette Schlichter, eds. Kritische DifferenzenóGeteilte Perspektiven: Zum Verh”ltnis von Feminismus und Postmoderne. Opladen: Wiesbaden, 1998.

Die vorliegende Essaysammlung geht auf eine Vorlesungsreihe zum Thema Postmoderne und Feminismus zur¸ck, die vom Zentrum f¸r interdisziplin”re Frauenforschung an der Humboldt-Universit”t in Berlin veranstaltet wurde. Auf zwei einf¸hrende folgen drei Beitr”ge, die sich mit dem Verh”ltnis von postmodernen feministischen Theorien zur politischen Praxis auseinandersetzen; die Artikel im letzten und umfassendsten Teil behandeln thematisch abgegrenzte Fragen in unterschiedlichen Disziplinen (in der Linguistik, Kunstgeschichte, Soziologie, Rechtswissenschaft und in den Kulturwissenschaften.)

Wie die Herausgeberinnen im Vorwort erkl”ren, versteht sich diese Essaysammlung als ein Versuch, Bilanz zu ziehen hinsichtlich der unterschiedlichen Formationen und Auswirkungen postmoderner feministischer Theoriebildung. Anders formuliert, es geht nicht mehr, wie noch im Umfeld der im deutschen akademischen Kontext sehr kontrovers gef¸hrten Debatte um Judith Butlers Gender Trouble um die Frage, ob eine Verbindung postmoderner und feministischer Positionen sinnvoll sei, sondern um eine durchaus kritische Revision der inzwischen in unterschiedlicher Weise etablierten Verbindungen zwischen Postmoderne und Feminismus. Der us-amerikanische Einfluþ auf die feministische Theoriebildung wird dabei deutlich benannt, wobei die Arbeiten von Judith Butler in den meisten Beitr”gen richtungsweisend bleiben. Einige der Autorinnen warnen allerdings auch vor einer unkritischen Ðbernahme dieser theoretischen Ans”tze f¸r den deutschen Kontext (insbesondere Sabine Lang, Birgit Sauer, Gudrun Axeli Knapp und Susanne Baer).

Im Rahmen dieser Besprechung beschr”nke ich mich auf eine Darstellung der allgemeiner ausgerichteten Artikel in Teil 1 und 2 des Bandes. Cornelia Klinger stellt in dem ersten Beitrag noch einmal einige der kontrovers diskutierten Fragen im Spannungsfeld Postmoderne-Feminismus vor (etwa die zentrale Frage nach den M–glichkeiten feministischer Politik bei gleichzeitiger Infragestellung traditioneller Subjekt- und Identit”tsbegriffe). Sie argumentiert f¸r eine st”rkere Differenzierung zwischen ìUniversalismusî und ìEssentialismusî, um auf diese Weise an einer universalen, wenn auch historisch wandelbaren, Kategorie ìGeschlechtî als kleinstem gemeinsamen Nenner feministischer Theorie und Praxis festhalten zu k–nnen. Klaus Milich begegnet der verwirrenden Bedeutungsvielfalt mit einer kulturhistorischen Verortung der oft widerspr¸chlichen Begriffsverwendungen von ìModerneî, ìAvantgardeî, Postmoderneî und ìPoststrukturalismusî (ein bereits in den achtziger Jahren von Andreas Huyssen und Klaus Scherpe vorgeschlagener Ansatz). F¸r eine Rekontextualisierung postmoderner Theorieans”tze argumentiert auf andere Weise auch die Soziologin Gudrun-Axeli Knapp. In ihrem umfassenden Beitrag, der sehr viel besser in den ersten als den letzten Teil dieses Bandes gepaþt h”tte, befaþt sie sich u.a. kritisch mit den zu androzentrischen Verallgemeinerungen tendierenden Postmodernediskursen (etwa bei Jameson und Baumann) und argumentiert ¸berzeugend f¸r die zentrale aber bisher kaum ber¸cksichtigte Rolle geschlechtspezifischer Ðberlegungen f¸r Gesellschaftstheorien. Ðber die Soziologie hinaus erscheint mir ihre Verortung feministischer Theorie gegen¸ber postmodernen Ans”tzen richtungsweisend: Knapp pl”diert daf¸r, zwischen Fragen kultureller Differenz und Fragen sozialer Ungleichheit genau zu unterscheiden, anstatt Ungleichheit in Differenz aufzul–sen (222).

Aus US-amerikanischer Perspektive f”llt insgesamt die fast ausschlieþliche Besch”ftigung mit geschlechtsspezifischen Fragen auf sowie die in manchen Beitr”gen sehr dominierende Bezugnahme auf Butlers Arbeiten. In diesem Sinne best”tigt dieser Band Milichs kritische Gesamtbilanz hinsichtlich der gesellschaftlichen Positionierung des Feminismus in Deutschland im Vergleich zu den USA: der amerikanischen Feminismus habe nicht nur die postmoderne Kritik an homogenen Vorstellungen von Geschlecht, sondern auch von Rasse, Kultur und Nation integriert und sehe sich daher ganz im Gegensatz zum deutschen Feminismus als Teil einer gesellschaftlich breiten multi-kulturellen Bewegung. Man mag Milich unzul”ssige Verallgemeinerungen hinsichtlich des deutschen oder amerikanischen Feminismus vorwerfen, aber er benennt hier in der Tendenz wohl zutreffende kulturelle Unterschiede, die auch aus der Perspektive der us-amerikanischen Germanistik bereits kritisch angemerkt worden sind (von Sara Lennox und anderen).

Den zweiten Teil des Bandes, in dem es um das Verh”ltnis von Politik und feministischer Theorie geht, er–ffnet ein Beitrag von Sabine Lang und Birgit Sauer, der sich mit der Kluft zwischen feministischer Theorie und Frauenpolitik in Deutschland auseinandersetzt. Die Autorinnen halten postmoderne Theorien etwa von der subversiven Rolle von Geschlechterparodien (Butler) zwar f¸r hilfreich, aber nicht f¸r ausreichend f¸r eine feministisch orientierte politische Theorie und Praxis. Es fehle an einem analytischen Instrumentarium, womit globale politische Entwicklungen in ihren Implikationen f¸r Frauen kritisch untersucht werden k–nnen. Demgegen¸ber erl”utern die beiden folgenden Artikel ganz im Sinne von Butler die produktiven politischen Implikationen feministischer Theorie. Isabell Lorey befaþt sich in sehr allgemeiner Weise mit Butlers Begriff einer ìdekonstruierten Identit”tspolitikî und argumentiert -- mit Bezug auf Arbeiten von Sabine Hark f¸r eine st”rker historisierte Sicht auf Identit”t. Hark selber gibt dann einen informativen Ðberblick zur (Begriffs-)Geschichte des ìCampî und zeigt dabei die subversiven M–glichkeiten und die politischen Grenzen von Formen der Geschlechterparodie auf.

Den Herausgeberinnen ist es gelungen, f¸r dieses Projekt eine Gruppe WissenschaftlerInnen zu finden, die unterschiedliche theoretische Positionen vertreten und verschiedene disziplin”re Perspektiven beleuchten, ohne daþ der gemeinsame Bezugspunkt des Bandes verloren ginge. Daþ bisher nur eine kleine Minderheit der hier vertretenen meist j¸ngeren WissenschaftlicherInnen habilitiert ist und einen Lehrstuhl innehat, ist -- so w”re zu hoffen -- nicht unbedingt ein Hinweis auf die weiterhin praktizierte Marginalisierung feministischer Forschung an deutschen Universit”ten, sondern vielleicht Zeichen der sich im Umbruch befindlichen deutschen Hochschullandschaft. In jedem Fall ist dieser Sammelband ein wichtiger Beitrag zur kritischen Bestandaufnahme von postmodernen und feministischen Theorien, dem es gelingt, transdisziplin”re Implikationen der theoretischen Ans”tze deutlich zu machen, ohne disziplin”re Besonderheiten zu vernachl”ssigen.

Herminghouse, Patricia and Magda Mueller, eds. Gender and Germanness: Cultural Productions of Nation. Providence: Berghahn, 1997. 344 pp. $17.50 paperback.

This fascinating and informative collection of twenty-two mostly original essays showcases feminist German Studies at its finest. Fundamental to the conception of the volume is the current feminist insistence, as the editors underline in their first sentence of their introduction, on ìthe entanglement of gender with issues of nation, class, and ethnicityî (1). The essays accordingly make the constructedness of identity categories their starting point, and, though their authors are mostly trained in literary studies, consider a variety of interdisciplinary topics from canonical and popular texts and film to racial tracts, nineteenth-century maternalism, and GDR homosexuality. The editors suggest that their volume may have been enabled by German reunification, which reopened discussions about the components of German national identity. They do not, however, comment upon most essaysí distinctively American perspective, characterized by a deep mistrust (often also discernable elsewhere in U.S. German Studies) of past and contemporary German nationalism and a refusal to exempt German women from their critiques, a position encouraged by studies like Claudia Koonzís Mothers in the Fatherland

Part one of the volumeís five sections explores German national identity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Susanne Zantop challenges the Anglo-American assumption that scientific racism begins in the Victorian period by examining scholarly ìproofsî of Caucasian supremacy advanced by eighteenth-century ìProfessor der Weltweisheitî Christoph Meiners, while Helga Watt shows Sophie La Roche entangled in the contradiction between German patriotism and female self-realization. Sara Friedrichsmeyer argues that Achim von Arnimís ìIsabella von Ÿgyptenî advances a v–lkisch conception of distinct ethnic identities that situates ìgypsiesî and women outside of history. Russell Berman shows how Heine elides deficient masculinity, Germany, darkness, and the mother, contrasted to his wifeí s bright, rational France, and Brent Peterson explores how popular nineteenth-century historical novels contributed to the ìgendered construction of the German nationî (82) that banned German women to the margins.

Section two, ìRethinking History and Canons,î proposes revisionist answers to less textually-based questions. Elke Frederiksen suggests that even German feminist studies have failed to apply multicultural and global perspectives to canon formation. Historian Ann Taylor Allen explores a century of ìfeminist maternalism,î showing how demands for womenís rights were justified via (politically ambiguous) appeals to womenís motherly qualities, and Stefana Lefko illustrates how the Bund Deutscher Frauen pursues that same strategy during the Weimar Republic. Patricia Herminghouse then argues that conceptions of womenís special nature were used to exclude women writers from standard accounts of nineteenth-century German literary history and still constrain us today.

The volumeís third section traces ìvisual cultureî from the Nazi period to the present. Lutz Koepnickís sophisticated analysis situates Zarah Leanderís film career within Nazi efforts to construct a ìspace of diversion free of politicsî that was ìat closer inspection political through and throughî (162). Barton Byg explores how three films set in the ruins of Berlin address the crisis of postwar masculinity; Ingeborg Majer OíSickey conversely shows that postwar Heimat films deploy ìhyper-masculinizedî and ìhyper-feminizedî bodies (205) to advocate for reactionary conceptions of national and gender identity. Mariatte Denman examines the K”the Kollwitzís Pietý recently placed in Berlinís Neue Wache, maintaining that it both situates women outside of history and obscures the Nazi past by making all Germans victims. Finally, Barbara Kosta is highly critical of Helke Sanderís BeFreier and Befreite for its failure to differentiate adequately in its portrayal of war-time rape.

The volumeís longest and possibly most original section addresses ìGermany and Her [sic] ëOthers.íî Examining films by Ama Ata Aidoo and Chantal Akerman, Barbara Mennel proposes that texts about Germany by non-Germans can decenter definitions of Germanness. Denis Sweet shows how, in the GDRís last years, particular notions of male homosexuality were deployed to demonstrate that all loyal socialists were welcome there, while Karin Bauer argues that in Herta M¸llerís novels the Rumanian state and the ethnic German community there are equally patriarchal and repressive. Magda Mueller maintains that unresolved tensions between asylum-seeking women, ethnic German women, and female citizens are inflected by each groupís different assumptions about what Germanness means. Eva Kaufmann reveals that strong gender identification in texts by three younger Eastern German women writers is coupled with a refusal to advance positive conceptions of Germanness. Leslie Adelson argues that even feminist scholars often subject Turkish women to ìdouble-otheringî and urges feminists to explore ìspecific intersections of gender, culture, ethnicity, nation, state, and historyî (318). The volume ends with two reprinted articles by Luise Pusch that criticize even the new Dudenís failure to abandon entirely the masculine generic but asserts that women nonetheless are changing language, concepts, and ìthus, everything elseî (326).

If this volume represents the state of the art of feminist German Studies, what could have made these uniformly high-quality essays even better than they are? I would plead for additional methodological refinements. First, the authors of these essays rarely problematize their standpoint and need to reflect upon the contingency of their conclusions with respect to their own positionality. Secondly, despite their interdisciplinary topics, these essays seldom draw upon methods or scholarship outside of cultural studies, and that must change if we want other disciplines to take our work seriously. Finally, we need to transcend the parochialism of German Studies by including a comparative perspective and by learning to read Germanness within a global context Decentering Germany in our own scholarly work will help us to further challenge the settled definitions of gender and Germanness which this volume so splendidly details.

Teraoka, Arlene A. EAST, WEST, and Others: The Third World in Postwar German Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

Teraoka offers insightful readings of the ìdiscursive problemî of the Third World in German literature from 1949 to 1982. In several of her readings Teraoka revises earlier scholarship by shifting the traditional perspective and focusing on formerly ignored minor characters, as for example in her study of Anna Seghersís Caribbean trilogy. Analyzing the function of minor black female characters, Teraoka uncovers the link of black skin to sexuality at the intersection of the textsí ìmaster narrativeî and their production of ìlocal color.î Thus, Teraoka finds that binaries that map rationality onto white and emotionality onto black characters repeatedly structure the representation of Third World characters. Teraoka illustrates how these ìEurocentric dichotomiesî result from indebtedness to the project of enlightenment. Throughout her book, Teraoka returns to the question how postwar German authors reconfigure the project of enlightenment in their representation of the relation of Germany and the Third World. For example, she shows how Peter Weiss in Viet Nam Diskurs universalizes the role of Vietnam as a paradigmatic revolutionary country. Later he transforms his collapse during a visit to Vietnam in 1968 into a lesson about the limitations of European tradition vis-ý-vis the Third World to overcome his moral guilt through reason. Teraoka juxtaposes Weissí and Enzensbergerís positions. Their differences result from the two authorsí disagreement over the meaning of enlightenment, which produces solidarity for Weiss and relativism for Enzensberger. Reason leads Enzensberger to a critique of privilege and a rejection of Europe.

Teraokaís book implies the broader question what kind of textual relationship German authors stage with the Third World. The possibility of revolutionary solidarity is at the center of her chapter on the literature of the GDR after 1973. In Claus Hammelís Humboldt und Bolivar oder Der Neue Continent and Peter Hackís Die Fische, Teraoka finds that the role of European science is portrayed as potentially emancipatory but also as an instrument of domination. Thus, Teraoka claims that these plays articulate a new form of solidarity that discloses cultural and political limitations of Europe and questions the GDR ìparty-line dichotomy between imperialist intervention and revolutionary solidarity.î

The possibility of presenting perspectives of Turks is the focus of her chapter on the rhetorical strategies in selected works by Max von der Gr¸n, G¸nther Wallraff, and Paul Geiersbach. In her analysis of G¸nther Wallraffís Ganz unten, Teraoka claims that Ganz unten is not about Ali, but instead about Wallraffís claim to personal experience. He plays the starring role on several different levels, while Turks serve to set the stage. Because Ali stands for oppressed groups in general, the text erases specific issues of race and culture. Teraoka contrasts this with Paul Geiersbachís book Bruder, muþ zusammen Zwiebel und Wasser essen! which promises to have ìrealî Turks talk for themselves. While she questions Geierbachís honesty towards the family he interviewed, she concludes that he allows us to hear ìdiscordant Turkish voices.î Thus, while Geiersbach is still central in his text, he does not claim an authority.

Teraokaís chapter about Heiner M¸ller articulates the central question whether a text can be ìcritical of traditional structures of dominationî while being cast in a ìrelentlessly, inescapably European discourse.î She sees innovative characters (for example ìAaronî in M¸llerís translation of Shakespeareís Titus Andronicus) ìcaught in the discursive trap,î but claims that M¸ller uncovers the process of having one minority stand in for all minorities. As a result of the attempt to ìacknowledge differenceî in his writing, M¸ller enacts violence in his work that is directed against all oppressors, which includes himself. Thus, Teraoka concludes that M¸llerís writing ìis at once mindful of its complicity in the violence that maintains an imperial order, while participating in the vengeful project(ion) of its decimation.î

The book impresses with detailed readings that unfold complexity without imposing theoretical paradigms onto the texts. By focusing on the ìdiscursive problem, not a political reality per se,î Teraoka intentionally limits her approach to textual readings, while I wished for more contextualization of the project both in German Studies and in the political reality of Germany. For example, Teraoka selected ìliberal, leftist, and socialistî German authors, but it is not clear what relationship she posits between left discourse and postwar German culture in general. The introduction frames the readings with theoretical paradigms developed in Ethnic Studies in the United States. Yet the quoted theorists do not reappear in the chapters, which begs the question about the relationship of American Ethnic Studies and German Studies. Teraokaís analysis of ìEurocentric binariesî as residues of the enlightenment project in progressive texts, however, offers a key to understanding the anti-enlightenment stance currently proclaimed by several minority writers, filmmakers, and musicians in Germany. All in all, EAST, WEST, and Others is an important book on which future research will be able to build and teaching will be able to rely.

Nevin, Susanne. Frauenlandschaften. Schwarzw”lder Landfrauen, erlebt, erdichtet, erinnert. Zeichnungen von Charlotte Haarmann. Gutach: Drey Verlag, 2000. 109 pp. DM 25.

Portraits of 15 women and their world, country women in the Black Forest, simple, strong women from the authorsí family and rural community around Bergdorf, this little volume is a pleasure to read. We sense that we know these women well. Somehow we are able to glimpse the essence of each with only a drawing and a text of one to five pages. There is a quiet strength in each of them and in the tone of their portrayal. We see them at work and in church, alone and with their children, we follow the everyday events marking their lives, close to the earth and to the seasons as they tend their plants and animals.

There is Gisela making goat cheese; Irma running a bed-and-breakfast pension; Erika wondering about her daughter, still-born out of wedlock and secretly buried in a hollowed-out tree trunk that has just been hit by lightning; there is Anna dying of cancer and telling the story of her life one last time. In each case, the narrator takes the time for careful description of the women and their world.

The stories are as much about the womenís contexts as they are about the women themselves. Not individual character studies focused on psychological traits, these are panoramic portraits of women in their everyday worlds surrounded by a very exact, concrete set of circumstances. In fact, reading them serves to remind us of just how much who we are is dependent on the world around us. In the portraits of these women, we notice the interconnectedness of our identities and our circumstances.

We are treated to a detailed look at womenís lives and the daily routines that define them. In ìPfarrmutter,î we follow the ministerís mother as she creates for herself a profession of caring and healing alongside her son:

The volumeís underlying theme, sounded in an epigram and introductory ìdream,î centers on the need to remember, to return homeóthe ìimmerw”hrender Gang zu den M¸tternîóand the necessity of unearthing what lies buried there before we can move on: ìEs liegt hier etwas tief vergraben, du weiþt es genau, und du weiþt, was es ist, und du kannst nicht von hier fort, bis du und ich es wieder ausgegraben haben.î

Short, concrete texts that lend themselves to class use with students of intermediate or advanced German, and a wonderful Christmas present, especially for the women in your life who read German.

WiG Book Reviews Online Fall 2000