Fall 1998 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

Ausgehend von der von Heinrich Bünting im Jahre 1588 gezeichneten Karte: Europa prima pars terrae In forma virginis, auf der die damals bekannte Welt, Europa, in Gestalt der spanischen Infantin Isabella Clara Eugenia dargestellt ist, (auch wenn diese Interpretation nur eine der möglichen ist), bespricht Pelz hauptsächlich Reiseberichte deutschsprachiger Frauen aus dem 17. bis zum frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Mit Hilfe der französischen Feministinnen, namentlich Julia Kristeva und Luce Irigaray, und theoretischen Ansätzen zur Interpretation von Reisen aus dem 18. Jahrhundert bis zu Todorov und Said, verfolgt Pelz den Weg der reisenden Frau (Sophie von La Roche, Ida Gräfin Hahn-Hahn, Ida Pfeiffer, Frederike Bremer, Sophie Döhner, z.B.) aus den eigenen vier Wändenüber den Orient in die Neue Welt. Frau wird dabei an der Schwelle der bekannten zur unbekannten Geographie angesiedelt. Sie muß allerdings, bevor sie in den unbekannten Raum vordringen kann, sich auch zu sich selbst in Distanz setzen, also zuerst einmal Europa erobern. Dazu bedarf es gewisser Hilfsmittel, die das eigene Ich von der Umwelt abgrenzen. Im Fall der Sophie von La Roche ist es der kritisch-beschreibende Blick auf die eigenen vier Wände, auf ihr Zimmer.

Mit dem Aufkommen der Kutsche als anerkanntem Transportmittel für Frauen kann frau dann aus ihrem eigenen Zimmer, von ihrem Schreibtisch, aufbrechen, ohne den geschlossenen Raum zu verlassen (Ida Pfeiffer, Johanna Schopenhauer, z.B.). Die Distanz zur Umwelt (und von sich selbst) wird dabei durch den Blick durchs Kutschenfenster gewährt. Gleichzeitig tritt frau den Eroberungszug in die Männerwelt an, wobei Pelz die Kutsche mit dem trojanischen Pferd vergleicht (77). Dieses trägt die Reiselustigen bis nach Italien, mit Rom als dem Endpunkt der bekannten, westlichen Welt. Schwieriger wird die Eroberung der Welt am †bergang vom Bekannten zum Unbekannten, was frau bewerkstelligt, indem sie am Karneval in Rom teilnimmt und sich danach weiter südlich bis nach Neapel vorwagt. Wenn der Karneval die weitgehend anerkannte Weltordnung auf den Kopf stellt und weitere Freiräume durch den Gebrauch von Masken verschafft, so beginnt im südlichen Italien die Konfrontation mit einer völlig fremden Welt. Aber erst durch die verschiedenen Erfahrungen in den Harems der Türkei und durch die Begegnung mit den orientalischen Frauen erkennen die Europäerinnen ihr eigenes Korsett. "Die Lokalisierung des Harems im Orient erlaubt ihnen, aus der Perspektive des Orients und aus einer Position der Exteriorität das diffuse Bild des Weiblichen einzufassen und zu fixieren und nun ihrerseits als eine von sich selbst abgerückte Einheit nach außen hin zu repräsentieren" (199).

Identität/Identifikation symbolisiert durch den Reisepaß. Der weibliche Körper wird zum Reisebegleiter, entweder auf den bekannten Routen der Schiffe, Züge und Straßen (Sophie Döhner) oder in der Erfahrung der Fremde als mögliches "zu Hause" (Lina Bögli). Die letzte Illustration des Buches zeigt eine Frau Durch das Verlassen Europas, der bekannten Welt, und die †berwindung der eigenen Grenzen, also mit dem Aufbruch nach Amerika im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts, zerreißt schließlich die Verbindung zur eigenen Geographie. Frau läßt ihr Gehäuse, das "reisende Frauenzimmer", hinter sich. Von nun an ist ihre mit Koffer, dem letzten Gehäuserest, am Rande einer Straße.

Pelz' Studie wird bereichert durch 40 Abbildungen von Frauen in den unterschiedlichsten Transportmitteln und Situationen und durch eine fastüberwältigende Fülle an Zitaten aus der - hauptsächlich deutschsprachigen - Sekundärliteratur. Ihr Stil bleibt trotzdem höchst verständlich; das Hauptargument, daß Frauenreisen bis zum späten 19. Jahrhundert als autogeographische Beschreibungen lesbar seien, ist klar nachvollziehbar und wird durch die zitierten Passagen aus der Primärliteratur erfolgreich gestützt. Insgesamt liest sich das Werk als fesselnder Streifzug durch die weibliche Reiseliteratur der vergangenen drei Jahrhunderte, der alle AnhängerInnen dieses Genres interessieren sollte.

Karin Schestokat
Oklahoma State University

Schoppmann has assembled ten tightly edited biographical sketches in this book, originally published by Orlanda in 1993 as Zeit der Maskierung. Each story, composed from memoirs, oral histories, letters and biographies reflects the variety of survival strategies - resistance, hiding, exile, accommodation- adopted by lesbians under National Socialism. Each story has episodes of daring, terror, luck or devotion, and each story provides vivid testimony to the masquerades that had to be played if lives were to be saved.

In her introduction, Schoppmann corrects the bias of most historians who have focused on the more well-documented proscriptions and punishments affecting gay men under National Socialism. She explains that female homosexuality was never explicitly outlawed in Paragraph 175 , either before or during the Third Reich, nor were lesbians labeled as a specific criminal category in the concentration camp. Unlike gay men, who wore the pink triangle, lesbians were part of the "asocial" grouping that wore black triangles and included pimps, prostitutes and other deviants. "The number of women who were subjected to the horrors of the concentration camps because they were lesbians cannot be documented," Schoppmann writes, "there was no systematic persecution of lesbians that was comparable to the persecution of gay men." Schoppmann nevertheless reviews the legal and eugenic debates about "race degeneration" that led to lesbians being sterilized, forced into prostitution in concentration camp brothels or gassed. She also understands that "lesbians were among the perpetrators, the bystanders and the victims" of these horrors and includes in the introduction anecdotes of Nazi lesbians.

As National Socialism advanced, the "El Dorado" Weimar lesbian culture was suppressed, but an underground network persisted. As a Berlin teenager, Johnny (Anneliese W.) enjoyed her lesbian bowling league and parties at the Tanzpalast Zauberflöte. After 1933, when the clubs were raided and banned, Johnny found her girlfriends in the Arbeitsdienst. She eventually made her way to the lesbian backroom of a Berlin-Wedding tavern. "The grapevine did its work," she reminisces. "The room was absolutely packed!" Johnny visited other clandestine places, and by war's end she had a secret of her own: she was protecting Margot H., one of 1,200 Jews who survived the war in hiding in Berlin. She and Margot's girlfriend, Peter (Hildegard) kept the Gestapo at bay with bribes, lies, and the cooperation of sympathetic neighbors.

The collection is dense with tales of masquerade. Recalling her emigration to Stockholm in 1932, Freia Eisner, the daughter of Jewish socialists remarks that "everyone was turning blond overnight." Margarete Knittel, another former denizen of Weimar Berlin's lesbian clubs remembers how some of her friends married gay men for mutual protection and how another friend joined the Nazi party to gain a business advantage over her Jewish competitors.

Contrasted to these examples of accommodation are the interviews with lesbians who fought back. Hilde Radusch was a prominent Berlin communist and was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned in 1933. After her release she was blacklisted, but when she did get work in a factory, she organized on the job. Her lover Eddy managed to support them both on almost no money. The couple worked with the underground and hid in a forest shack, half starved by the time the Red Army marched on Berlin. As a schoolgirl in Kassel, Elisabeth Leithäuser and her communist youth comrades had endured a treason trial. Although she "had to be careful ... and really didn't do anything political at all," she lived with her lover Elga for twelve years and gave away nothing when the Gestapo, baiting her with accusations of being a lesbian, tried to recruit her to inform. As a secretary she worked for a man who was involved with resistance leadership and who was "incredibly happy that he had someone who wasn't a Nazi."

In all of these life stories, Schoppmann emphasizes how lesbians and individual characters are profoundly influenced by issues of anti-Semitism and class. The book is illustrated with photos contrasting the women as old survivors with pictures of them in their younger years, and Schoppmann includes their recent reflections or the testimonies of friends to follow up on their lives since the war. Schoppmann's achievement is an eloquent, sophisticated and thoroughly readable synthesis of biography and social history.

As a history which brings together the concerns and methods of a series of important contemporary fields - Holocaust history, Queer studies, and women's studies – Days of Masquerade tells powerful stories of courage, fear and desire. For those of us who are working towards an interdisciplinary analysis of twentieth century German cultural history, its translation makes the lesbian legacy it honors accessible to a wider readership of students and colleagues.

The publication of The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature marks the culmination of a three and a half year effort. This project evolved from its inception at the Women in German conference in fall 1993 through the compilation of entries to its final print in early 1997. Many contributors were involved: two editors, three research assistants, 116 authors of signed entries, predominantly scholars from colleges and universities in the U.S., and many people behind the scenes. The large number of people participating in the project has made it possible to present a wide variety of feminist theoretical approaches.

The editors, professors Friederike Eigler and Susanne Kord from Georgetown University, mention in the introduction that there was "no comprehensive feminist reference work " prior to the publication of The Feminist Encyclopedia. The idea for this volume sprang from the need for an encyclopedia which would not be biographical or biobibliographical but topic-oriented, a work which focuses on the writings of female authors and "reassesses traditional views of women and femininity in literary history." The contributors' coverage of traditional subjects in this encyclopedia gives a unique view of a female-centered rather than a male-centered universe,which the editors call "Frauenzentriertheit."

The Feminist Encyclopedia is alphabetically arranged and contains a reference section, an appendix of names, and an index which lists major entries. The title of the book might suggest that it deals only with German literature, literary theory and literary history. The Encyclopedia addresses German-language literature from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. There are also two individual entries for East German literature and West German literature between 1945-1990, and an additional one is dedicated to literature after unification in 1990.

Each article covers current research on the topic and gives a good basic introduction with references for further research. Cross-references to related entries and a short bibliography of articles and books are contained within the body of the contributions. Only about fifty of more than 400 entries are biographical sketches. They include some of the great women in literature and cinema, as well as some female authors who are not represented in other biobibliographical works. The articles were mostly written by women but some contributions are by men. In order to enhance the visibility of women in literature and history, the contributing authors also agreed on avoiding non-inclusive language and expressions that assume a masculine norm.

The growing importance of film in German studies is well acknowledged by the editors. The Encyclopedia gives a particularly good introduction to women filmmakers, their work and film theories. It also covers aspects of theater, dance theater, travelogues, music, history, archives, linguistics, literary prizes, professional organizations for women in film, theater and academia, the salon culture, science fiction, women's journals and more.

This collection was compiled for students and scholars in German studies, as well as for interested readers outside of the field. The Encyclopedia is a must for every library and every department of Germanic languages and literatures. Written in English, this work is geared towards an American and British readership. In certain cases German is used when the term is untranslatable or the German expression is an established concept. One might think that an encyclopedia as a literary reference work is apolitical. However, the idea of compiling all the information that make up this book stems from a political point of view. This perspective demands the acknowledgment of the significant role that women have played in the history of German-speaking countries and their literatures. The message of this encyclopedia is to recognize and celebrate women's contributions to literature, culture and history. This volume goes beyond being a glossary of literary terms: it shares many of the features of a feminist literary history. Some entries are, in fact, summaries of important feminist scholarship.

The Feminist Encyclopedia takes a new approach to the tradition of encyclopedic writing. It offers new terms, some of which have only been established in the last twenty five years through women's liberation, the institutionalization of gender studies and cultural studies. The range of entries is impressive. The volume features articles on "colonial literature," "écriture féminine," "Emanze," and separate entries for each "British, French, German and U.S.-American feminist theory," "positionality," "participation and exclusion," "postcolonialism," postfeminism," "reception," "victimization theories" and "wild woman," to name but a few.

The editors' idea of feminist scholarship, which is posited in "conjunction with issues of race, ethnicity, class, religion, age, and sexuality, among others," is successfully reflected in the body of entries. The following examples show an awareness of issues of race as in "Ausländergesetz," "Black German literature," "Exotin," "hybridity," 'minority literature," "Orientalism," "Turkish-German literature," issues of class in "worker's literature," issues of religion in "German-Jewish literature," "Jewish woman," "Mother Mary," issues of age in "grandmother," "wisewoman," "witch," and sexuality in "masochism/sadism," "sexualrevolution," "virgin" as well as issues of sexual orientation in "lesbian film," "lesbian literature," "lesbian theories," "homosexuality/homoeroticism/homosociality." The work includes entries with different perspectives on related topics such as "whore" and "prostitution." At first sight they seem to overlap but the contributors emphasize aspects in regard to the development in German-speaking countries and within German literature.

There are factual errors and certain omissions which could be corrected in future editions. An example of such an error is a contributor's assumption in the entry "sister" that the protagonist in Trotta's film Die bleierne Zeit (1991) was Ulrike Meinhof's sister. She is, in fact, Gudrun Ensslin's sister, as correctly stated in the entry "Trotta." An example of the latter is the omission of Sigrid Weigel's name from the appendix and index despite her name and work being mentioned in multiple entries. However, Eigler and Kord acknowledge that their selection process "resulted in exclusions and marginalizations."

The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature was published only five months after Greenwood Press came out with The Feminist Encyclopedia of Italian Literature in the summer of 1996. Although it is not part of an official series, there will apparently be forthcoming volumes with similar titles for French literature and Spanish literature. In addition, several others are being planned. With The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature, the editors and contributors have made a valuable, indispensable contribution to German studies and gender studies.

Understanding Ingeborg Bachmann is a comprehensive review of the Bachmann oeuvre, secondary scholarship, problems and availability of English-language translations. Achberger pays special attention to the musical thrust of the author's work, an aspect that has not been appreciated in Bachmann research until now. Each chapter provides a brief but in-depth discussion of themes, allusions and interpretive approaches. Combined with a well-researched chronology and extensive bibliography, this is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand this enigmatic 20th Century Austian writer.

Achberger has a gift for putting the works in a literary context and opening avenues for further research. She points out that "Bachmann has been shown to have anticipated subsequent developments in the literary theories of deconstruction and feminist criticism in the 1970's" (58). She reveals, for example, how the connection between Bachmann and Brecht has been overlooked, pointing to similarities between the authors' works like the splitting of protagonists into male and female halves, or Brecht's treatment of Good's surviving in capitalist society" and Bachmann's treatment of "the impossibility of Love's surviving in the kind of mass society epitomized by Manhattan." Citing significant passages from Brecht, Achberger presents a convincing argument for a direct correlation between the two writers. Both authors, she maintains "refused to remain silent about the crimes committed around them every day, especially the subtle, commonplace, yet largely undetected crimes" (44).

Achberger discusses the density of subtextual allusion in Bachmann: "Allusions to biblical and fairy-tale sources," she writes, "as well as musical and literary works, serve to suggest 'truth' about the characters, events, and relationships of the narrative that cannot be known or that do not make sense within the system of coordinates operating on the primary fictional level" (79). She identifies biblical references, primarily from the book of Genesis, in "A Step toward Gomorrah," providing the reader with ample cause for considering the work as more than a "flattened, trivial account of literal lesbianism" (79). Achberger's approach reveals "a tale of destruction and creation, of death and salvation on a mythical scale" (79). Seen from this perspective, the tale is taken from the pallid place of sexual sensation to a space of "far greater magnitude: a new genesis, the creation of the female self, 'a counter-image' out of the ashes of a male-centered world, as the woman Charlotte during one long night of introspection finds within herself the woman Mara, whom she creates in her own image and likeness" (79).

A striking feature of this monograph is its overview of the works. Defying the notion of Bachmann as "poet laureate" turned prose writer concerned with "sentimental 'women's stories' focusing on the private lives of overly sensitive, pitiful women whose affection and self-pity made them at best a subject for 'trivial literature'" (147). Achberger points toward parallels between the earlier poetic and the later prose works: "the poems ... introduce metaphysical themes which become increasingly important in Bachmann's later writing: death and destruction, opposing parts of the self, the painful dualism of thinking and sensuality, consciousness and undivided oneness with nature" (17).

Discussing the gender-specific treatment of social ills in the author's later writings, Achberger states that "[t]he warlike nature of the relationship between the sexes is most prominent in the novels of the Todesarten cycle... where she had begun to depict the 'ways of death' that women suffer in patriarchal society, most devastatingly subtle in the destruction of female subjectivity" (5). The shift toward gender-specificity is evident in the radio play "The Good God of Manhattan" in which Bachmann depicts "for the first time what is to become a central theme ... the destruction of the female in patriarchal society" (41). Here too, we witness the schematic pattern in which the woman becomes the "sole victim of ... absolute love; the murderer, judge and survivor are all male" (41). The pattern in which "the male returns to society unscathed ... and the female is consumed alone in the volatile heat of the space they shared" (41) recurs in variations, most prominently in the closing passages of Malina, where the female narrator disappears through a crack in the wall, but also in "Udine geht," where the mythical female narrator "Undine" disappears into the water, leaving the human male "Hans" on the ground above.

Feminist literature abounds with variations on this theme, but what is unique about Bachmann is the way parallels are drawn between theses acts of gynocide and those acts of genocide of the Nazi regime. Bachmann saw the origin of fascism in interpersonal relationships. In the year of her death, she spoke on the subject in an interview: "[fascism] doesn't start with the first bombs that are dropped; it doesn't start with the terror you can write about, in every newspaper. It starts in relationships between people. Fascism is the first thing in the relationship between a man and a woman" (cited by Achberger 99).

Understanding Ingeborg Bachmann is a feminist analysis of Bachmann, the Writer, that is not over-shadowed by the myth of Bachmann, the Woman. Here, the two join Bachmann the Composer, Bachmann the Philosopher, Bachmann the Scholar and Bachmann the Social Critic to complete a powerful portrait of this first lady of German language letters. Rarely do we find such a concise collection of resources and insights into the mind of an author as Achberger has gathered together here.

Insuppressible memories transform a normally uneventful stroll into an unforgettable journey in Walking with Ghosts: A Childhood in Wartime Vienna. As the author walks to town one day, the mundane sights and sounds she usually encounters suddenly become laden with meaning. Long-buried memories and ghosts of her childhood as a Jew growing up in Europe during the Nazi years begin to surface.

Born in Berlin in 1924, Trahan lived with her grandparents in Moravsk‡ Ostrava from 1929 to 1939 until she moved to Vienna to live with the father she hardly knew. She describes the strain of living with an insensitive and often hostile father, who despite his constant criticism of her, went to great lengths to save her life. Born in Czernowitz, Bukovina, a region incorporated into Greater Romania in 1920, her father managed to convince the Romanian consul to issue him and his daughter Romanian passports. As a result of his resourcefulness, they escaped numerous deportations and survived the war in Vienna with "J-less" passports and ration cards.

Trahan's transitions between present and past occur seamlessly and often shockingly as the narrative perspective shifts back and forth from grown woman to young girl. The droning of bees recalls an idyllic summer afternoon in a sunny garden eating Palatschinken with fresh fruit. Moments later, the cloyingly sweet scent of clover evokes the dreadful smell of a dead body. While the sun shining through the clouds triggers the memory of Schiller's Die Bürgschaft and her first love, a store that sells glass prompts the recollection of cardboard-covered, bombed-out windows. Two inseparable white birch trees growing from a common trunk call to mind twins, good friends forced to separate in death.

Trahan uses the framing story of the walk convincingly to link her adult reflections with her childhood memories. She describes the process of remembering as fitting pieces into a puzzle. The missing pieces emerge through diary entries, letters, and documented statistics to create a montage of memories intertwining her own recollections with information she gathers from others. With this book Trahan makes a significant contribution to the genre of "belated-memory" literature. As she writes from memory about events that transpired more than 50 years ago, she critically examines her own perspective. "Was I thinking those thoughts then or am I only thinking them now? Am I still the same I was then or am I inventing a nineteen-year-old self? Perhaps both and neither" (117).

Trahan engages the reader by posing questions throughout the narrative. She admits, "Not even on that train to Vienna [in 1939] did it occur to me that I might be leaving behind my last chance to ask questions" (27). She depicts her "very happy childhood" in Ostrava and the years that followed, culminating with the 1945 siege on Vienna, through the eyes of a young girl. Despite having to live with her father, food shortages, numerous betrayals, and the constant threat of Gestapo raids and deportations, there were times of joy in her every-day life as well. She "split her life into two separate halves." One half included excursions to the Jewish cemetery, one of the few places not off-limits to her Jewish friends. There they relaxed and enjoyed being together until deportations claimed most of the group. The other half of her life involved going to the theater, opera, and movies. Trahan explains, "It was a stubborn attempt to lead the life of a normal teenager, as long as life in Vienna was still 'normal' for those who didn't have to wear the star" (61).

Walking with Ghosts: A Childhood in Wartime Vienna serves as an important historical document. In addition to telling the story of her own family and friends, Trahan illustrates what it was like for those few Jews hiding in Vienna during the war, living illegally and under the constant threat of death.

In ihrem lesenswerten †berblick über deutsche feministische Entwicklungen der Gegenwart gelingt es den Autorinnen, möglicherweise gerade angesichts ihrer geographischen und kulturellen Distanz, äußerst unterschiedliche Ansätze gleichwertig nebeneinander zu stellen und ihre jeweilige historische Bedingtheit mit einzubeziehen. Es sind, so Beinssen-Hesse und Rigby, die Erfahrungen der totalitären politischen Systeme des 20. Jahrhunderts, die deutsche Feminismen prägen; die Auseinandersetzung mit dem kulturellen und politischen Erbe, und besonders die Frage nach den Bedingungen der Möglichkeit dieser Systeme, wie sie etwa in der Dialektik der Aufklärung gestellt wurde, habe deutsche theoretische Ansätze, und somit auch diejenigen feministischer Ausrichtung, wesentlich beeinflußt. Diese 'Geburt des Feminismus aus dem Geist der kritischen Theorie' machen die Autorinnen sehr deutlich, wobei sie gleichzeitig auch den Einfluß internationaler feministischer Entwicklungen nicht aus dem Blick verlieren.

Kapitel 1 setzt sich direkt mit Horkheimer und Adornos Dialektik der Aufklärung als einem Schlüsseltext deutscher Nachkriegstheorie auseinander. Die Studie habe zwar gezeigt, daß aufklärerische Egalitätsforderungen immer bipolaren Denkmustern verhaftet blieben, wiese aber dennoch Frauen weiterhin die Position des 'Anderen', Naturverhafteten innerhalb einer binären Logik zu. Auch feministische Ansätze, die die Position dieses Anderen, etwa in Gestalt der Hexe oder der Hysterika, stark machen wollen, entgehen dieser Dichotomie nicht.

Im folgenden Kapitel wird den Mustern imaginierter Weiblichkeit nachgegangen. Ausgehend von Silvia Bovenschens zentralem Text werden die Probleme historischer Spurensuche erörtert. Vor allem sei es nötig, nicht nur literarische, sondern auch historische Frauengestalten als imaginiert zu begreifen, wobei die hegemonialen Muster der imaginierten Weiblichkeit durchaus normativ für gelebte Weiblichkeit werden können. Während Kapitel 3 sich mit den Facetten des Patriarchats, von der historischen Gewordenheit patriarchaler Strukturen bis zu den Mechanismen ihrer Erhaltung in der gegenwärtigen Politik beschäftigt, geht es im nächsten Kapitel um selbstgewählte Definitionen von Weiblichkeit, den Stellenwert von Körperlichkeit, Sexualität und Mutterschaft und die damit verbundenen Zwänge und Möglichkeiten. Die Autorinnen konstatieren hier die Existenz zweier diametral entgegengesetzter Strömungen in der deutschen feministischen Diskussion, zum einen die strikte Ablehnung 'traditionell weiblicher' Verhaltensweisen, zum andern die selbstaffirmative Postulierung weiblicher Andersheit, die sich schnell in den Netzen des Biologismus fängt. Als äußerste (theoretische) Pole dieser auseinanderdriftenden Strömungen nennen sie die Aufhebung der sex-gender-Trennung in der amerikanischen feministischen Theorie einerseits und das italienische affidamento-Modell andererseits.

Kapitel 5 beschäftigt sich mit Weiblichkeit als Zeichen in patriarchalen Texten und der anderen Perspektive, die sich in Texten von Autorinnen ergibt. Hier wird vor allem deutlich, wie französische Theorien des Poststrukturalismus und der écriture feminine vor allem 'akademische' feministische Ansätze beeinflußt haben. Forderungen nach einer Revision der Literatur- bzw. Kulturgeschichte unter Einbeziehung des neuen Blickwinkels werden hier ebenso erörtert wie die Frage, ob es sich um eine weibliche oder feministischeästhetik handele.

Im folgenden Kapitel über Ethik und Spiritualität wird die Frage nach weiblicher oder feministischer Ethik gestellt, wobei das Spektrum von der Postulierung von Mütterlichkeit als ethischer Grundqualität bis zur völligen Ablehnung einer höheren weiblichen Moralität z.B. in Studienüber weibliche Mittäterschaft während des Naziregimes reicht.

Kapitel 7 beschäftigt sich mit Möglichkeiten des feministischen Engagements, denn, so konstatieren die Autorinnen, in Deutschland sei eine starke Polarisierung von akademischem Feminismus und Frauenbewegung zu verzeichnen, was die Formulierung eines homogenen Subjekts von Gleichheitsforderungen angesichts einer nicht einzuebnenden Differenz zwischen Frauen geradezu unmöglich mache. Abschließend werden Zugänge zu feministischen Themen diskutiert, wobei weibliches Wissen als dissidente Forschungspraxis mit utopischem Potential, die die Kategorien der Parteilichkeit und Betroffenheit einbezieht, verstanden wird.

Insgesamt ist den Autorinnen eine sehr gut lesbare Einführung in deutsche feministische Ansätze gelungen, deren Aktualität und Benutzbarkeit noch durch eine ausführliche Bibliographie gesteigert wird.

While the eighteenth century saw a flourishing of travel literature, travelogues by women were uncommon, not least of all because very few women had the means or opportunity to venture from their socially prescribed domains of home and family. La Roche was among the few women of her day who had the rare opportunity to travel, and the circumstances of her journeys were all the more unusual, since they were not necessitated by family matters or business affairs as convention would demand of a woman. On the contrary, La Roche was driven by a personal desire "mich umzusehen, und alles zu bemerken, was mir Unterricht und Freude geben kann" (A2). As Becker-Cantarino points out in her preface to the Tagebuch, Sophie von La Roche’s travels and travelogues of the 1780s-of which her Tagebuch einer Reise durch Holland und England is the third and last-thus mark the inception of new possibilities for women to travel and write about their journeys. Given this context, the significance of the present reprint is indisputable. Previously available only in its rare original 1788 and reprinted 1791 editions, this important primary document of women’s literature is once again accessible to a broader readership-albeit primarily as a library resource, since the price (183 DM paperback, 241 DM hardback) will prevent most readers from personally owning the edition.

Becker-Cantarino’s informative twenty-eight page preface provides a broad context for the reading of the journal. She has organized her discussion into four subsections, each of which addresses general or specific circumstances surrounding the authorship of the journal. The first section briefly illuminates the difficulties for traveling German women contemporary with La Roche and cites examples of others who sought to circumvent the obstacles to women’s travel. The second part of Becker-Cantarino’s preface examines England as a travel destination in the eighteenth century. She outlines the basis for the increasing Anglophilia in Germany and for the escalating opportunities to travel to England, particularly after 1760 among middle class men. These journeys led to a number of published travelogues. Becker-Cantarino definitively places La Roche in this tradition previously exclusive to men when she counts the Tagebuch among the most important documents of German travel literature on England in the eighteenth century.

Having addressed both travel to England by Germans and the status of traveling women in the eighteenth century, in the third section of her preface, Becker-Cantarino examines the place of England, La Roche’s journey, and the Tagebuch within the context of the author’s life and work. La Roche’s enthusiasm for and interest in England is evident already in her early works, and her 1787 trip to the island nation additionally provided her with an experiential basis for the works which followed: England is the setting of her Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim (1771) as well as two later novels and many of her narratives, and occurs as a theme in Mein Schreibtisch (1799) and her moral weekly Pomona. Für Teutschlands Töchter (1783-84). Beyond indicating the centrality of England for La Roche’s works, Becker-Cantarino further shows that England held great meaning for her personally. Not only in the journal does La Roche express her enthusiasm for England but also in her personal correspondence, where she refers to her trip to England as "der schönste Punkt meines ganzen Lebens" and to her experiences there as "selige Erinnerungen für den Abend meines Lebens" (*18).

The fourth and final part of the preface presents a profile of the style and subject matter of the Tagebuch itself. Becker-Cantarino establishes that La Roche’s familiarity with a variety of traditions, including the travelogues of English and French women and Sterne’s Sentimental Journey, as well as her knowledge acquired from reading and her own personal experiences in England allow her to find a style of her own. La Roche’s Tagebuch is written from a distinctly female perspective, says Becker-Cantarino. It represents a fusion of the author’s own experience, knowledge, and thoughts.

Becker-Cantarino thus establishes the importance of the Tagebuch in the history of travel literature, particularly women’s travel literature, and suggests its potential significance in understanding La Roche’s oeuvre. A few minor orthographical/syntactical errors (p. *19, "Scheizer" instead of "Schweizer"; p. *23, "durch lediglich durch" instead of "lediglich durch"; and p. *24n, "schriftstlellerisch" instead of "schriftstellerisch") do not diminish the value of her discussion. The reprint of the Tagebuch facilitates the much needed scholarship on La Roche and also on women’s travel literature, since with its republication all of La Roche’s travelogues are now available in recent editions.

Becker-Cantarino’s well-written introduction, which includes footnotes referring the interested reader to previous scholarship, provides a solid ground from which further research can ensue.

Christine Manteghi
California State University, Chico

First published as Das Gewissen steht auf in 1954, ten years after the failed assassination attempt against Hitler on July 20, 1944, and then in London as The Conscience in Revolt , this new edition, The Conscience in Revolt. Portraits of the German Resistance, was re-edited in association with the "Forschungsgemeinschaft 20. Juli e.V." The volume includes The Conscience in Revolt (Das Gewissen steht auf ) comprised of 64 mini-biographies, and the companion volume from 1957, The Conscience decides (Das Gewissen entscheidet ) which portrays the lives of 66 more victims of the National Socialist regime. The editor, Annedore Leber, was the wife of Julius Leber, a Social Democrat in the Reichstag and conspirator in the resistance group the "Kreisauer Kreis," who was tried in the "Volksgerichtshof" and executed 5 January 1945. This translation, unlike the Conscience in Revolt from 1957, is unfortunately often awkward and unclear. The information provided about these mostly unknown Germans however, redeems the edition as an important source of information about resistance in Germany.

This book was the first post-war account of resistance based on photos and information recorded in the Berlin "Volksgerichtshof." After the war Leber began to reappropriate individual historical accounts from the files of the National Socialists. Many stories include what Leber calls the individual's "spiritual development" from quiet discomfort to outright resistance. These biographies are arranged into subheadings, such as "Work and Sacrifice for Others," "Living by Doctrine," and "In the Christian Spirit," followed by a short description of the history of the group of individuals to be portrayed and their relationship to the Hitler regime. The narrative perspective shifts from the editor to interviews with a family member or friend, and sometimes to quotes from reports from the Ministry of Justice. Her unconditional support for victims of the "Volksgerichtshof" results in at least one case of not presenting the complete picture, such as that of Erwin von Witzleben, Commander of the Army Group West, who tried to recant and even to give the Nazi salute in court. Leber endeavors to present these people in "a book which will make the inner compulsion to protest against tyranny understandable to all" (3).

The Conscience in Revolt includes several portraits of individual women moved by their conscience to resist. "Solidarity of the Unions" is the story of Else Nievera (268ff.), a union organizer for the German Textile Workers Association imprisoned for her work with families of political prisoners. Nievera published Mein Arbeitstag, mein Wochenende (no date), a collection of letters from women factory workers. In "Work and Sacrifice for Others" we read about nurse Gertrude Seele (70ff.), who spoke out at a party against NS policies concerning the Jews and was executed. The martyred nun Edith Stein (147ff.) is featured in "In the Christian Spirit," whose dissertation was titled Husserls Phänomenologie und die Philosophy des heiligen Thomas von Aquin.

As a custodian of memories of resistance, the editor performs a great service to those unaware of resistance across German society, as well as the high rate of executions for political reasons. Leber includes a study of arrests and executions in the section "The Ascertainable," where she relates how the independence of the judicial system was eliminated and provides statistics of sentences recommended and executions carried out.

The translation from 1957, The Conscience in Revolt (London: C. Tinling & Co, Ltd) includes a brief political history of Germany from the end of World War I up to the events of Hitler's takeover, which would have also been a welcome inclusion for this volume. Leber's history of communism in Weimar Germany and the Hitler years under "Morals and Radicalism" provides some historical information. More short descriptions of the organized groups mentioned in the book (e.g."Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold" and the "Kreisauer Circle") would have been helpful as well.

This book can be considered in connection with several others published by the widows and friends of men in the Kreisauer Circle, the group of conspirators who planned Hitler's assassination and a post-Hitler government. Other titles include Für und Wider by Annedore Leber and Freya Moltke, Um der Ehre Willen by Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, a cousin of one of the conspirators of 20 June 1944, as well as the recent publication of interviews with the widows of the men executed for the assassination plot, Courageous Hearts by Dorothee von Meding. Together they add much to helping us understand the scope of resistance under Hitler.

Remmler’s detailed study Waking the Dead explores the dilemma of remembrance and representation in Ingeborg Bachmann’s novel trilogy Todesarten by drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concept of Eingedenken, or "insightful remembrance," which calls for the interrelationship of collective history and personal experience.

One of the first authors of postwar Austria to achieve "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" in her fictional works, Bachmann addresses the act of monumental remembering prevalent in Austria in the 1950s’ and 60s,’ in which public memory dismissed the individual suffering experienced by victims of WWII and the Shoah. Unlike Bachmann’s female protagonists who are preoccupied with their personal memories in Todesarten, Benjamin’s understanding of the past constitutes a "work in progress," in which the process of "Eingedenken" includes not only the missed potential for change in the past, but also those forces that continue to repress this potential in the present. Remmler’s study explores how Bachmann’s female protagonists are unable to express their pain publicly, but also examines their refusal to differentiate their own suffering from that of others. As Remmler points out, it is precisely this absence of the process of public mourning in postwar Austria that led to the dismissal of the memories of the victims of the Shoah, as well as their isolation.

Remmler’s first chapter "Insightful Remembrance" explores the correspondences between Benjamin’s struggle against monumental history through the process of Eingedenken and Bachmann’s thematization of utopian consciousness in her Frankfurter Vorlesungen and its effect on the construction of remembrance in Todesarten. Although Bachmann’s female protagonists voice their memories by refusing to conform to repressive forms of misremembrance, Remmler points out that this does not erase their complicity in monumental history. Bachmann never explicitly names remembrance in her texts and essays, however she shares Benjamin’s interest in a non-violent representation of suffering and thus commits herself to overcoming the separation between personal memory and history in her work.

The second chapter on Der Fall Franza explores the psychological and historical elements of remembrance. Whereas Franza’s personal remembering is an attempt at Eingedenken, the male protagonists Jordan and Martin represent collectivized misremembrance and monumentalized public memory. Remmler holds that Bachmann’s novel blurs the distinctions between the mass murders of the Shoah and the individual abuses Franza suffers. By mourning her own victimization, Franza mourns other victims of colonial and fascist regimes. Although Remmler questions Bachmann’s tendency to illustrate the individual suffering of her female protagonists, such as Franza, by way of historical atrocities such as the Shoah, she nonetheless concludes that Der Fall Franza can be read as a practice of Eingedenken.

In her third chapter "Insightful Remembrance in Malina," Remmler juxtaposes the images of repressed female identity in the dreams of the first person narrator in Malina with the historical experiences of German fascism. As in her previous chapter, Remmler questions Bachmann’appropriation of images of the Shoah in representing female suffering and victimization, however, argues that Bachmann refers to the Shoah as a means of pointing out the structural continuity of oppression within society in Malina, therefore remembering the victims of the Shoah as Benjamin attempted with his concept of Eingedenken.

Remmler’s discussion in her fourth chapter of "Requiem für Fanny Goldmann ," juxtaposes Fanny’s debilitated personal memory with the collective misremembrance of Austrian history. Fanny’s disinterest in the victims of National Socialism are contrasted with her own outrage when she discovers that her former lover Marek has appropriated her personal memories in his novel as a means of furthering his career as a writer. Like the female protagonists of Malina and Der Fall Franza, Fanny is destroyed by her inability to voice her personal memories and find a forum for mourning, although she is aware of her own complicity in her demise.

Remmler concludes that Todesarten portrays the fatal consequences of dismissing personal memories for the sake of monumental history by mourning the absence of a public memory based on the interrelationship between subjective experiences and history. As a final note, Remmler calls upon readers to explore Bachmann’s perpetuation of cultural and social images of the female gender in her portrayal of women as victimized and self-destructive mourners.

Waking the Dead is rich in historical and literary detail and therefore an ideal resource for readers already familiar with and interested in recent Austrian history and Bachmann’s writings in particular.

Diese Ausgabe, die erste umfassende (aber nicht Gesamt-) Ausgabe von Mereaus Werken, ist nichts weniger als ein historisches Ereignis in der Publikationsgeschichte von Schriftstellerinnen der Goethezeit. Abgesehen von den beiden Paradefrauen Annette von Droste-Hülshoff und Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach gibt es keine erschwingliche und zugängliche Gesamt- oder Fast-Gesamtausgabe der Werke irgendeiner Schriftstellerin vor dem 20. Jahrhundert. Außer Einzelwerken existieren Neueditionen von Werken von Frauen aus diesem Zeitraum bisher nur als kritische Studienausgaben (beispielsweise für Droste-Hülshoff und Günderrode) oder reprographische Nachdrucke (z. B. bei Petra Wald oder Georg Olms) — für Frakturungeübte schwer zugänglich, für PrivatleserInnen als "akademische Ausgabe" abschreckend, und für StudentInnen nicht bezahlbar. Daß ein Verlag es der Mühe wert hält, die Werke einer Schriftstellerin vor dem 20. Jahrhundert neu zu setzen, daß eine Herausgeberin sich der schier endlosen Arbeit der Textsuche, Textauswahl, Annotation und kritischen Bearbeitung unterzieht, ist praktisch unerhört, aber ein Grund zum Feiern: denn so werden die Werke dieser aufregenden Schriftstellerin nicht nur der Forschung und Lehre, sondern auch dem nicht-akademischen LeserInnenmarkt wieder zugänglich gemacht. Das ist, abgesehen von allem Nutzen, den Forschung und Lehre zweifellos daraus ziehen werden, das Phänomenale an diesem Werk: endlich gibt es einen Schmöker von einer Schriftstellerin der Goethezeit!

Konzipiert ist die Ausgabe als drei relativ unabhängige Bände, von denen jeder auch als Einzelband fungieren kann, jeder versehen mit einem auf diesen Band abgestimmten Einleitungsabsatz zur Autorin, zu den Anmerkungen, zum Abkürzungs- und Literaturverzeichnis, zur Zeittafel und zum Nachwort der Herausgeberin. Band I enthält Mereaus Romane Das Blütenalter der Empfindung (Originalausgabe 1794) und Amanda und Eduard (orig. 1803), sowie Mereaus frühere Version Briefe von Amanda und Eduard, die zuerst in Schillers Horen erschien, und ihr Fragment Gespräch über Poesie. Band II enthält eine Gedichtauswahl und sämtliche Erzählungen; Band III Mereaus Tagebuch, Betrachtungen, kleine Prosa und Fragmente, inklusive ihren berühmten und kontroversen Aufsatzüber Ninon de Lenclos. Unberücksichtigt bleiben in der Ausgabe einige Gedichte und Mereaus †bersetzungen. Der dritte Band enthält außerdem ein Personen- und Ortsregister für die im Tagebuch genannten Orte.

Insgesamt ist die Ausgabe musterhaft ediert, was bei einem Unternehmen diesen Ausmaßes Achtung verdient. Beeindruckend sind die ausführlichen Anmerkungen zu jedem Werk: dort finden sich Hintergründe zu dem jeweiligen Werk sowie die ursprünglichen Erscheinungsorte, Erläuterungen von antiquierten Ausdrücken und literarischen/mythologischen Anspielungen, Hinweise auf biographische und literarische Zusammenhänge, Querverweise auf verwandte Motive in anderen Werken Mereaus, Erklärungen von Zusammenhängen mit anderen zeitgenössischen SchriftstellerInnen oder literarischen Strömungen, Hinweise auf †bernahmen aus Mereaus Tagebuch und Briefen in ihre Werke, und Standorte der Manuskripte; alternative Entwürfe werden ausführlich zitiert. Im Gedichtband bieten die Anmerkungen außerdem Hinweise auf Vertonungen und †bersetzungen, Gedicht-fragmente und Varianten. Die Zeittafeln sind in allen drei Bänden identisch; dort findet sich nicht nur ein stichwortartiger †berblicküber das Leben der Autorin, sondern auch — mit Sternchen gekennzeichnet — Anmerkungen zu ihrem Werk. Die Literaturverzeichnisse bieten in allen Bänden nur Literatur zu den in dem jeweiligen Band veröffentlichten Werken, was ForscherInnen die Suche nach Sekundärwerken zu spezifischen Texten sehr erleichtert. Außerdem umfaßt jedes Literaturverzeichnis eine Liste der Originalveröffentlichungen sowie eine Liste der Rezensionen, beides wieder nur im Bezug auf die in diesem Band neu veröffentlichten Werke. Das Literaturverzeichnis zum letzten Band ist umfassender und bietet, zusätzlich zu einer Liste der Sekundärwerke zu Mereaus Tagebuch und kleiner Prosa, eine Liste ihrer Werke, Handschriften, Rezensionen ihrer Werke, Nekrologe, Literaturhinweise zu ihren Handschriften und Briefen, relevante literarische und philosophische Primärtexte und Briefe, Forschungsliteratur sowie Eintragungen zu Sophie Mereau in Nachschlagewerken und Literaturgeschichten, von denen einige ansonsten wohl nur schwer auffindbar wären. Das Personen- und Ortsregister ist nur beschränkt nützlich, da es nur die ersten 100 Seiten des 3. Bandes umfaßt und auch dort einige Fußnoten nicht einbezieht — ein Versehen des Verlags.

Zu jedem Band gibt es ein ausführliches Nachwort, und auch diese Essays sind auf die in dem jeweiligen Band enthaltenen Werke maßgeschneidert. Parallelen finden sich im Versuch der Herausgeberin, Leben und Werk der Autorin im Kontext der zeitgenössischen (meist Weimarer bzw. Jenaer) Frauenliteratur zu situieren und Hintergründeüber das politische, intellektuelle und gesellige Leben im zeitgenössischen Jena aufzuzeigen. Wichtig sind außerdem die Anmerkungen der Herausgeberin zu Mereaus Rezeption, vorweggenommen in den geringschätzigenäußerungen ihres Ehemannes Clemens Brentano und in zeitgenössischen Rezensionen. Band I enthält außerdem eine konzise Analyse von Mereaus Romanen im Kontext zeitgenössischer Romantradition und der Französischen Revolution, und Band II lose zusammenhängende Kommentare zu einigen Gedichten und Erzählungen, während das Nachwort zum Tagebuchband eher biographisch orientiert ist. Allen gemeinsam ist die Verbindung von Literatur und Biographie, die sich in steten Vergleichen und Rückbezügen auf Briefe und das Tagebuch ausdrückt, und das klare Verständnis Mereaus als Frühfeministin, was in Einzelfällen zu einer Lesart der Texte als Manifeste (ver)führt. Die starke Betonung auf biographische Kontexte mag einigen ForscherInnen methodologisch anfechtbar erscheinen, scheint mir jedoch bei einer Werkausgabe, die ja vor allem die Autorin vorstellen und zu weiterer Forschung anregen soll, durchaus gerechtfertigt. Anstöße zu weiterer Forschung finden sich sattsam, nicht nur in den z. T. interessanten Ausführungen in den Nachworten, sondern vor allem auch in den ausgezeichneten und ausführlichen Anmerkungen zu jedem Text.

Wie bei jedem Monumentalunternehmen dieser Art gibt es auch hier offene Fragen bzw. LeserInnenwünsche. Fragwürdig erschien mir z. T. die Begründung der Textwahl: die Auswahl der Texte liegt im Ermessen der Herausgeberin, wird aber hier — besonders im Fall der Gedichte — nur recht vage mit "Repräsentativität" für das Werk der Autorin oder mit projiziertem LeserInneninteresse begründet. Das Argument der "Repräsentativität" wirft die Frage auf, was man sich darunter vorzustellen habe, und weist außerdem auf eine Inflexibilität der Interpretation seitens der Herausgeberin hin, die in den Analysen im Nachwort nicht konkretisiert oder begründet wird.ähnliches gilt für die Annahme der Herausgeberin, daß einige von Mereaus Texten für LeserInnen dieser Ausgabe interessanter seien als andere: für die Unterscheidung zwischen "Originalwerk" bzw. †bersetzung ist das in vielen Fällen sicher richtig, in den Fällen einzelner Gedichte jedoch schwerer vertretbar. Hier wären klare Aussagen, an welches Publikum sich diese Ausgabe wendet (an ein ausschließlich akademisches oder an ein ausschließlich feministisches) und welche Interessen diesem Publikum unterstellt werden, willkommen gewesen. Das unvollständige Orts- und Personenverzeichnis im dritten Band ist ein Fehler des Verlags und sollte der Herausgeberin nicht angelastet werden. Gravierender ist das Fehlen von Gedichttiteln im Inhaltsverzeichnis zum zweiten Band oder aber eines Registers von Gedichttiteln oder Anfangszeilen am Bandende, so daß völlig unklar bleibt, welche Gedichte in die Ausgabe aufgenommen wurden, es sei denn, man macht sich die Mühe, den Band von Anfang bis Ende durchzublättern.

Trotz dieser Mängel ist diese Ausgabe eine großartige Leistung: neben den gewissenhaft edierten Texten kann das, was hier an Textkenntnis, Hintergrundinformation und Forschungsanregung geboten wird, mit jeder DFG-geförderten Ausgabe konkurrieren. Mit DM 69,- ist die Ausgabe nicht nur für Bibliotheken, sondern auch für LeserInnen, akademische und andere, erschwinglich. Nicht nur ForscherInnen, die bisher Mereaus Texten in Archiven nachspüren mußten, nicht nur LehrerInnen, die, um Mereaus Literatur in den Unterricht miteinzubeziehen, endlose Stunden am Kopierer verbrachten, sondern auch diese LeserInnen — Sophie Mereaus erstes breitgefächertes Publikum seit fast 200 Jahren! — haben der Herausgeberin und dem Verlag viel zu verdanken. Mereaus Fast-Gesamtwerk, vorgelegt von Katharina von Hammerstein, ist ein Desideratum, eine Notwendigkeit und ein Genuß. Es bleibt nur zu hoffen, daß die Ausgabe auch zum Präzedenzfall wird.

WiG Book Reviews Online Fall 1998