Wig News - Coalition of Women in German

Spring 1995
N. 66
Women in German
Editorial
Greetings from New England, where there is no
large new newsletter coalition, but two good
women working with me: Vibha Gokhale in
Boston, and Suzana Habibovic here at Central
Connecticut State University in New Britain.
Vibha Bakshi Gokhale:
I received my Ph.D. from Michigan State
University. My research focuses on German
women's writing in 18th and 19th centuries, but
my areas of interest include writings of TurkishGerman women and Indian women, and of
course feminist pedagogy. Being a native of
India, who is trained in German studies and
resides in America, I am not only interested in
issues related to multiculturalism, but also
experience them first hand in my everyday life.
These days I am enjoying living in Boston and
working on a manuscript on Therese Huber's
short prose narratives which is due for
publication in August 1995.
Suzana Habibovic:
Born in Bosnia, studied German at the University
of Sarajewo before fleeing to the West. In New
Britain since 1993 and an Honors student and
German major at CCSU since 1993, and
President of the CCSU German Club. My
knowledge of the English language has helped
me in dealing with the strange world and made
me an interpreter and guide of my family.
Although taking this big responsibility of guiding
my family along with the memories
that I carry from home, may seem
to be a heavy burden for my 22
years, I have found myself growing
stronger, believing in my work and
better future.
Martha Kaarsberg Wallach
Born in Poland, attended German
and Canadian schools and
completed graduate work at the
University of Washington with a
dissertation about Heine's sociopolitical views. My current
research interests include Talvj
(Therese Albertine Luise von Jakob Robinson,
1787-1870) and the image of Poles in German
literature. I am co-editing a volume on German
women writers and fascism with Elke Frederiksen,
and am translating and co-editing short stories
by Barbara Frischmuth with Karen Achberger.
Before coming to CCSU in 1988, I taught at the
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where I
received the first issue of the WIG Newsletter in
1974. I have been an active member since
1980, serving on the Steering Committee from
1983-1985 and taking part in the WIG Cabaret
since its inception in 1983. Why did I take on
the Newsletter? At 2 am, on the last day of the
Wig Conference in Florida last fall, I heard that
since two years of searching had not turned up
any candidates for coordinator, there simply
would be no newsletter after this. My loyalty to
WIG got the better of me, I forgot my backed-up
piles of papers, my overdue projects, my twelve
hour teaching load, my committees, my family
obligations - and volunteered.
Is there anyone out there who would like to join
us? If you have a computer and access to email we can easily work together, no matter
where you are. At CCSU all sorts of good
German & feminist things are happening, such
as a yearly summer program in Rastatt (New
Britain's Sister City), a thriving exchange with
Baden Wurttemberg, a growing women's studies
program, and a growing number of women
faculty, but there is no graduate program in
German and thus no scores of graduate students
eager to be on the editorial staff of this
2
Women in German
Newsletter! So, volunteer, if you can. In the
meantime, please be patient & helpful when you
are dealing with us and overlook typos, omissions
& duplications as you are reading the Newsletter.
Three of us are doing the work formerly done by
ten!
This Newsletter was hatched with help of former
editors Susan Cocalis and Jeanette Clausen and
with intensive midwife assistance from "Mother
Klassen", who is giving me emergency numbers
to call as she is leaving for Canada! Thanks to
all three of them and also to my colleague
David Blitz, who scanned images for us and to
my husband Peter Wallach*, who repaired a
modem, found a lost mouse & set up newsletter
software. Last, but not least, I would like to thank
CCSU students Gilbert Olsen and Robert Casey
of our University's Internet Help Desk who
translated documents from Egyptian
hieroglyphics into English, transformed scanned
images into bit-map-programs and turned Mac
disks into Microsoft Word disks. Without their
help, this newsletter would not have survived its
birth pangs.
Martha K. Wallach
Central Connecticut State University
* Please see the obituary notice for Peter
Wallach in the Personal News section of the
Newsletter.
Wig Bulletins
Moving? Send us your new address!
Don't feed the shredders! Did you know that bulk
mail not deliverable as addressed is destroyed?
Bulk mail is neither forwarded not returned to the
sender, but is fed to the U.S. Post Office's
shredders--hardly the final resting place we had
in mind for the WiG Newsletters and Yearbooks!
So, please send us your new address as soon as
you can, at least 6 weeks before each
newsletter's submission deadline (February 15,
May 1, November 1).
If you have missed any issues of the WiG Newsletter or Yearbook because your address change
didn't reach us in time, please send $2 for
postage per missed item when requesting a
replacement. Send all address changes and
replacement requests to: JEANETTE CLAUSEN,
MODERN LANGUAGES, IPFW, FORT WAYNE,
IN 46805-1499. Do NOT send membership
correspondence to Newsletter Coordinator,
Martha K. Wallach --she would have to forward
it.
MLA WIG Dinner Report and a Plea
The WiG dinner at the MLA in San Diego was a
delightful success, except for the disasterous
financial aftermath of which most participants
were oblivious: The group bill came to $100
more than the total amount of money paid by
each person. The 10 WiG members still
remaining at the restaurant were stuck with the
consequences--they paid $10 each beyond what
they owed for food, tax, and service. What to
do? It would seem only fair that each of us who
was there (about 40 women) either search our
souls (did I pay enough?) or simply contribute
$2-$3 to the kitty for reimbursing the women
involved. Please send contributions to Julie
Klassen, Dept. of German and Russian, Carleton
College, Northfield, MN 55057. I will contact
Michelle Stott and Helga Thorson (two "edle
Spenderinnen") about the names of the others
who rescued the rest of us and send them all
WiG checks. Any surplus will go to the WiG
coffers. Thanks, Julie Klassen
Earlier Deadlines:
Deadline for submissions for the next Newsletter
is May 1 already. This newsletter will contain
registration materials and a complete program
for the October 19-22 WIG Conference in St.
Augustine, Florida. It will enable you to register
by August 15, the deadline which will give you a
discount price. A higher price will apply until
Sept. 15, after which a significant late fee will
apply.
Wig News
Wig Conference in Potsdam
Response to the announcement of a Wig
Conference in Potsdam June 28-July 1, 1995
(which came to you in a direct mailing at the
beginning of February) almost overwhelmed the
organizers, Elke Liebs (U Potsdam), Inge
Stephan (Humboldt U) and the Arbeitsstelle fOr
feministische Literaturwissenschaft (U Hamburg).
They had expected 30 to 40 people, but by the
enrollment deadline of March 1, the
Arbeitsstelle had received over 50 registrations.
If you registered before the deadline, you should
have received a BesUWgung from the
Arbeitsstelle. Elke took a few late registrations
before the house was declared full and
registrations closed. If there is a problem,
3
Women in German
contact Elke by fax. She will return from her
spring break by the end of March and her
assistant is monotoring her faxes in her absence.
The program of the conference is still being
worked out and will be mailed to all those who
registered.
Women filmmakers at the Berlin Film
Festival 1995
• Eva Maria BahlrOhs, Oh My Dear! Husband
(Mein Lieber Mann, 1994)
• Friederike Beck, The Games By Two (Les Jeux
A Deux -- Die Spiele zu Zweit, 1994)
• Doris DOrrie, Nobody Loves Me (Keiner Liebt
Mich, 1994)
• Dominik Graf, The Invincibles (Die Sieger,
1994)
Friday afternoon the paedagody panel will take
place (see Calls for Papers below); this will be
followed by the Business Meeting
On Friday evening, the second interdisciplinary
panel will consist of a film showing, possibly
"Beruf: Neo-Nazi;" we will ask our guests to
each respond to the film as they think someone
from their discipline would do, and then we will
have a general discussion.
On Saturday morning Jeanine Blackwell and
Shanta Rao will chair a session called "Crossing
Boundaries: Feminist Studies - Cultural Studies"
(See Calls for Papers below)
Saturday afternoon is free time & on Saturday
evening there will be "Cabaret '95", followed by
party time.
Calls for Papers
Wig Conference October 19-22, 1994, St.
Augustine, Florida
• Birgit Hein, Baby I Will Make You Sweet, 1994
• Dagmar Hirtz, Moondance, 1994
• Sherry Horman, Women Are Simply Wonderful
(Frauen Sind Was Wunderbares, 1994)
• Helma Sanders-Brahms, To Live Now -- Jews in
Berlin (Jetzt Leben -- Juden in Berlin, 1994)
• Margarethe von Trotta, The Promise (Das
Versprechen, 1994)
Preview of Florida WIG Conference
October 19-22, 1995 in St. Augustine, Florida
Thursday evening, Anna Kuhn is chairing a
session on "Coping with the Backlash" (see Calls
for Papers below)
For Friday, Sara Lennox has arranged two
interdiscipllinary panels with guest speakers
talking about work in feminist German Studies in
their own fields; our guests are:
Seyla Benhabib, .Government, Harvard, talking
about political theory;
My~a Marx Ferree, Sociology, University of
Connecticut;
Atina Grossmann, History, Columbia;
On Friday morning they will give a 20-30 minute
overview of their own fields and then be ready
for questions.
CROSSING BOUNDARIES: FEMINIST STUDIES
- CULTURAL STUDIES
We invite proposals on topics related to
interdisciplinary feminist studies. We would like '
the presentations to address some of the
following questions. We want presentations to
be both concrete and theoretical, and we would
like to feature "real stories from the front" as
much as possible.
1. What difficulties have we encountered in
crossing disciplinary boundaries (methodologies,
institutional strictures, prohibited topics,
limitations and frustrations about individual
expertise, a "closed shop" mentality in
disciplines, lack of access to materials, problems
arising from your own biases, and approach.)
What has worked as you have overcome these
difficulties? What hasn't worked?
2. How do we use "new" literary methods, such
as methods of reading colonial/postcolonial
discourse, when we study literary texts?
3. How do we use interdisciplinary methods to
read writings, film and art by foreigners, ethnic
and national minoroties, and other minority
groups living in Germany? How do these
methods interface with "the project of national
literature?" Where should feminists stand:
undermine this project? revise it? deconstruct
it?
4
Queries: Jeannine Blackwell,
JBLACK@UKCC.uky.edu,office tel: 606-2577012, home tel: 606-255-8508 after 5:30.
Submissions by April 25 to:
Shanta Rao, Prospect St. #36, Northampton, MA
01060
Jeannine Blackwell, German - 1055 POT,
U.Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506
COPING WITH THE BACKLASH
Send proposals for papers by April 25 to:
Anna K. Kuhn, 601 Street,
Davis, CA 95616
Tel: (916) 758-6849
(for e-mail address see directory at end of this
Newsletter)
TEACHING DIVERSITYIDIVERSIFYING
TEACHING
In recent years, classroom teaching has been
shaped increasingly by issues of diversity,
including race, class, gender and sexual
orientation. We invite papers of a theoretical or
practical nature which explore how our teaching
practices have been affected by 1) the
increasing diversity of the German classroom
related to demographic and institutional
changes, and 2) an increasing awareness of and
emphasis on the diversity of German culture.
How have debates in other disciplines on
diversifying teaching practices affected our
teaching of German language, literature and
culture? What strategies can we employ to
negotiate between diversity of the classroom
culture and that of the target culture? Please
send 1-2 page abstracts by April 25, 1995, to
both:
Brigitte Rossbacher
Department of Germanic Languages and
Literatures
Box 1104
Washington University
St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone:314-935-4288 (w
314-727-9707 (h)
email:bross@artsci.wustl.edu
and to:
Dinah Dodds
Del'artment of Foreign Languages and
Literatu res
Box 30
Women in German
Lewis and Clark College
Portland, OR 97219
Phone: 503-768-7420 (w)
503-228-5663 (h)
email:dodds@lclark.edu
WiG Yearbook 12
Contributions are invited for Women in German
Yearbook 12: The editors are interested in
feminist approaches to all aspects of German
literary, cultural, and language stUdies. The
deadline for receipt of manuscripts is January
15, 1996; earlier submission is strongly
encouraged. Please prepare your manuscript for
anonymous review and separate bibliography
from notes. Manuscripts should not exceed 25
pages (typed, double-spaced), including notes.
Send one copy to each editor:
Sara Friedrichsmeyer
Department of Foreign Languages
University of Cincinnati, RWC
Cincinnati, OH 45236
and
Patricia Herminghouse
Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
News From Germany
Germany - a Grimace? How filmmakers
oscillate between comedy, melodrama
and self indulgence: Some reflections on
the Berlin Film Festival 1995
by Karen A. Franz, Central Connecticut State
University
Images of the night when the Berlin Wall fell in
November 1989 belong to the great moments of
television: jubilant masses poured across the
borders, strangers were embracing each other,
tears and sound bites were plentiful. Margarethe
von Trotta appropriates this night for a moment
in her own film history. She uses those
impressions for the grand finale of her newest
film, The Promise (Das Versprechen, 1994) that
was chosen for the opening screening of this
year's Berlin Film Festival in February, before
being released in standard movie houses. The
filmmaker decided not to use any documentary
footage for this scene. Instead, she staged the
recent historical event with actors to create an
emotional scenario where her two protagonists
5
could meet each other after 28 years of Wallseparation. Her reasoning: The original
television pictures seemed too chaotic. In this
filmic re-telling, the fall of the Berlin Wall is
reduced to a picturesque tableau for a love
story. The film ends with a sequence on the
Glienecker Bridge in Berlin. It is up to the viewer
to decide whether the relationship between
Sophie (Corinna Harfouch), an East German who
in 1961 had fled with friends to the West, and
her former lover Konrad (August Zirner) from the
East is doomed to fail or not.
The protagonists are used metaphorically to
describe the two parts of Germany -- the West is
productive, daring, successful and international:
Sophie raises her son (conceived in a brief
meeting with Konrad in Prague in 1968) as a
single mother and shares an elegant studio in
West Berlin with a French journalist. The East is
described with familiar visual stereotypes as
drab, opportunistic and corrupt. Konrad
succeeds as a scientist within the state hierarchy
only as long as he conforms to the repressive
official power structure. His career reflects this
conformism: as a young man he works for the
border police, learns to shoot dissidents, and
never has the courage to take this path himself
to follow Sophie to the West. After a violent
conflict with a state official, Konrad is degraded
to work as a caretaker in a public swimming
pool, broken, isolated and disillusioned. On the
way home from work one day, he learns about
the opening of the border: the historical moment
almost passes unnoticed, because he is neither
one of the political activists in oppOSition (his
sister is) nor a party member. Margarethe von
Trotta places the responsibility for the failure of
the promise to reunite entirely onto the male
protagonist, and thereby the East. This is a
powerful post-unification story: while it
acknowledges the existence of personal
struggles in the East, it designates guilt for this
situation only on one side of the Wall, the "other"
side.
Margarethe von Trotta's film was not the only
German contribution to the 45th Berlin Film
Festival that attempted to re-write recent history.
Edgar Reitz took,on an ambitious project that
turns out to be pompous and deceiving: in The
Night of Filmmakers (Die Nacht der Regisseure,
1994), he sets out to tell German film history in
light of this year's celebration of one hundred
years of cinema. In this director's night, Reitz
gathers a selected group of West German
auteurs in a fictitious meeting in a new
cinemateque in Munich. For 87 minutes
Women in German
filmmakers recount their favorite clips in film
history, using their own work or citing others. The
images they have in mind appear on a big
screen in front of the group, i.e. Leni
Riefenstahl, casually placed behind Werner
Herzog, is reminiscent of Fritz Lang. Wim
Wenders, Alexander Kluge and Helma SandersBrahms are some of those who were selected
and are supposed to represent all of German
filmmakers. The movie is unintelligible for
viewers who cannot place the clips in a
chronology. It is aggravating to those who miss
prominent voices by filmmakers left out in Reitz's
spectrum: hardly any women are represented.
Riefenstahl emerges as an innocent voice
among others, decontextualized from her own
legacy in propaganda work during the Third
Reich. In this collection of filmic memorabilia,
any dissenting voices are silenced or erased
altogether. On the other hand there is too much
talking: superficial and shallow remarks about
the past fail to engage with the multifaceted
German film history that is thereby cleansed
from controversy.
It is ironic that Edgar Reitz stated in a seminar,
organized by the Goethe Institute about the
crisis of the cinema of authors ("Oer Autorenfilm
in der Krise?"), that he did not think the term
"Autorenfilm" carried the same meaning in
Germany as in other European countries. He
claimed that Germans were dwelling in
provincialism ("provinzielle Suppe gekocht")
when insisting that there was a single author. In
contrast, other countries, he said, do not
separate artistic responsibility between producer
and director. He talked about the lack of risks
being taken by German filmmakers in the
present, who work in predictable environments
("kalkulierte Luft"). Helma Sanders-Brahms
objected. She insisted that members of the New
German Cinema did not think of themselves as
being gods. Sanders-Brahms also emphasized
that the history of German filmmakers in the
postwar years had to be differentiated between
East and West Germany -- a thought that never
even surfaces in Reitz's The Night of the
Filmmakers. She stressed that New German
Cinema was successful abroad because it had
engaged with German realities in a challenging
manner. German film productions nowadays are
popular within German movie theaters, she said,
but uninteresting to viewers elsewhere. "Germans
want to see blunt, stupid comedies and
laughter," she claimed, "it's not a face that's
shown of Germany at this time, it's just a
grimace." Germans tolerate dull comedies, she
contested, not thoughtful reflections.
6
Sanders-Brahms was referring to popular movies
that have been released in 1994 and were also
shown in the series on new German films (Neue
Deutsche Filme 1994/95), organized by the
Berlin Forum during the Festival. Among them
are SOnke Wortmann's Pretty Baby (Der bewegte
Mann, 1994), a comedy placed in gay
subculture. Doris DOrrie's Nobody Loves Me
(Keiner Liebt Mich, 1994) belongs into this
category as well. This entertaining filmic tale
deals with a thirty year old single woman who
desperately seeks a relationship. One film that
breaks this perception and engages thoughtfully
with the past is Andreas Gruber's The Quality of
Mercy (Hasenjagd -- Vor Lauter Feigheit gibt es
kein Erbarmen, 1994). In this film, the Austrian
filmmaker has researched an incident that
occurred in a village near the concentration
camp Mauthausen in the winter of 1945. In
February five hundred Soviet officers tried to
escape the death row in the camp. Of the 150
escapees only twenty survived the subsequent
"MOhlviertel Rabbit Hunt," organized by the
villagers. The story is based on interviews with
survivors and inhabitants of the village who
remember.
This film stands out in the wide range of German
contributions to the Berlin Film Festival.
Although the market share of German
coproductions in 1994 has been significantly
higher than in previous years -- 22 percent of the
films shown presently in commercial movie
theatres originate in Germany -- only few engage
with the challenges of national identity. Whereas
Reitz's selected group of aging directors selfconsciously reflect on themselves, younger
filmmakers are interested in cash revenues with
their comedies. There is little promise that the
story of Margarethe von Trotta's filmic
protagonists about a united Germany will be
continued on film. Maybe there is too little to
laugh about.
A Helping Hand for Bosnian Women
Medica, a shelter for Bosnian women and their
children, victims of the war, has been founded
with the help of the gynecologist from Koeln,
Monika Hauser. Tragedies of these women are
often less acknowledged and put behind the
political issues of the war. Thus, the existence of
Medica is of the enormous importance. Medica
is located in a central Bosnian city, Zenica and
is operating successfully. More than 4000
women and children have turned to Medica for
help. This center not only offers the opportunity
Women in German
to share painful experiences but it also offers the
hope in brighter future.
Suzana Habibovic, CCSU
Personal News
Dorothy Rosenberg in Russia
Dorothy Rosenberg has become a Research
Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in
Washington and a frequent flyer to Moscow as
the co-organizer of a project on social and
economic transition in Eastern Europe and the
former Soviet Union. The project includes
meetings and seminars in Moscow and
Washington, a volume of articles on post-1989
experiences and a series of workshops in Russian
regional centers. In addition to fund-raising and
organizational responsibility, her role in the
project has been to gently, but persistently
confront an economist-dominated group with the
importance of social and cultural factors in the
problematic transition to new political and
economic structures and their gender-specific
effects. The first conference in the series will
take place in Moscow in June. (Yes, I'm
painfully relearning Russian and yes, Moscow in
January is nearly as miserable as you suspect).
Less climatically and linguistically challenging,
but equally stimulating, she is also one of four
Americans engaged, 0 together with feminist
scholars from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the
former GDR, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia,
Slovakia and the former Yugoslavia in the
international, inter-disciplinary research project
"Women, Gender and the Transition in Eastern
Europe" directed by Susan Gal and Gail
Kligman and funded by the ACLS and the Soros
Foundations.
A New Wiggie in Australia
Have you noticed the e-mail messages on the
WIG-L list with the letters "au" or "nz"at the end
of the return address lately? I asked one of the
senders, Victoria Hardwick, who just joined WIG
at the end of February, to tell us about herself:
This piece about being a Germanistin in
Australia should really bear the title "The
Academic Who Came in the Back Door". I
completed my undergraduate studies at
Macquarie University in Sydney, graduating with
a Bachelor of Arts, Diploma of Education. The
profession I had chosen was high school teacher
7
Women in German
of French and German which were my majors.
Following my graduation I went to Europe,
ostensibly to remain for a year to experience the
languages I had learnt. I taught in London
schools for six months, then travelled to
Germany where I taught in state and private
schools for nearly eight years. During my time in
Germany I became fluent in the German
language and pursued studies in music. When I
returned to Australia I began postgraduate
studies in German. After one year of this I
successfully applied for the position of Tutor in
the German Department here in Adelaide, a
position I held for eleven years full-time and one
year part-time before I was awarded tenure in
1994.
My area of research is music and text, especially
in popular music and more specifically in
oppositional songs of the GDR. Cultural studies
is also an area of interest and the teaching and
acquisition of German. I am an enthusiastic
and, I hope, a successful teacher of German
language at all levels and am at present the
subject coordinator of the beginners' German
course and its follow -on course. I am also the
Department's representative on the South
Australian German Teachers' Association. Up till
now I have no publications, since I have
concentrated on building up my teaching
reputation in the academic community and
completing my Ph. D. thesis, but I have given
lectures on East German literature and popular
culture and am at present preparing to give a
course in GDR literature and culture in Semester
2 of 1996 together with one of my colleagues.
Because Australia has a small population in
relation to its size, it is not difficult to know or
find out what research others are doing in
Germanistik. The Goethe Institut also makes
possible an annual meeting of German lecturers
called Forum Uni-Deutsch. I attended for the first
time last year and found it useful to compare
notes with others only to realise that we are all
faced with the same problems. German and
American conferences are less accessible and
therefore I have been unable to attend any of
these. I hope that the future will bring more
possibilities.
Regards, Victoria
Ruth Kluger at CCSU
Ruth Kluger read from her autobiography weiter
leben: Eine Jugend at CCSU on February 23,
1995. Her bokk has been awarded the fourth
major literary prize (the Kaschnitz prize) and has
become a best-seller. Over 100,000 copies have
been sold in hardback and dtv has just brought
out a paperback edition. The GERMNEWS list
recommended it as "Pflichtlektore."
Prize to Leslie Adelson
Leslie A. Adelson, Ohio State University,
. Columbus, was awarded the first Aldo and
Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Germanic
Languages and Literatures for her book Making
Bodies, Making History: Feminism and German
Identity, published by the University Nebraska
Press. The Scaglione Prize for Studies in
Germanic Languages and Literatures is awarded
biennially for an outstanding scholarly work on
the linguistics or literatures of the Germanic
languages, including Danish, Dutch, German,
Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and Yiddish.
The prize consists of a check in the amount of
$1,000 and a certificate.
H-G Peter Wallach, 1938-1995
H-G. Peter Wallach, Professor of Political
Science at Central Connecticut State University
and husband of Martha Wallach, died suddenly
on Monday, March 13th, 1995, at the age of 56.
He was on sabbatical leave at the time, working
on manuscript on pOlitical leadership, which was
to be his sixth book. Peter will be remembered
for his intellectual curiosity and creativity, his
easy smile and camaraderie, his commitment to
civil rights, and his love of the outdoors. He was
Director of the CCSU Program for European and
American Studies, as well as the leading spirit in
developing academic relations between CCSU
and German universities. He was a member of
the Board of Directors of the New Haven branch
of the ACLU, and was also a member of the
Board of Directors for Camp Mohawk in Cornwall,
Connecticut. A memorial fund for scholarships
has been established in his name by the CCSU
Foundation, 1615 Stanley St., New Britain, CT,
06050. He will be remembered by friends,
colleagues, and students who benefited from his
aid and wise counsel.
David Blitz, CCSU
Conference Reports
MLA, December 27 - 30, San Diego,
California
"Karoline Auguste Fischer's Novels: The
Construction of a Body That Exists" by
Brigitte E. Jirku, Universitat de Valencia, Spain
8
In her novels Honigmonathe (1802) and
Margarethe (1812) Karoline Auguste Fischer
traces the path and the problems of women as
male projections without body to a female
model of a woman who writes herself into
existence. Fischer's work can be read as a
"response" to Schlegel's novel Lucinde . In each
of the novels, Fischer presents two female
characters attempting to fulfill the male ideal of
femininity. The women's psyches are destroyed
and their bodies are displayed as sexual objects
of male desire in the form of "tableaux vivants".
The emotional rape and physical death of their
bodies under erasure are transcended into moral
superiority, as only means of escape from male
proprietorship.
Not love stories are being depicted but their
failures, and consequently the failure of the
heterosexual matrix. Fischer attempts to show
the dissolution of gender norms and the
problems of a "mise en jeu" of the power
relations between the characters. In
Honigmonathe, she proposes lesbianism and
androgyny as alternatives. Not gender is at stake,
but sex enters as category, and at the same time
ensues a discussion of sex as natural and the
notion of nature. In considering the term
androgyny. Fischer first writes a body without
sexually contoured materiality. Not the women
appear as androgynous but the ideal men.
Contrary to Schlegel, androgyny is no longer a
part of the male urge for wholeness. It answers
the urge of the woman to write herself into
existence.
Either solution refutes the definition of "woman
as muse" and proves insufficient for writing a
sexed female body into existence. Both, the
"amazon" Wilhelmine and the dancer
Rosamunde, create a relationship to their body
and sex from the cultural and social site of the
"other," whereas Julie and Gretchen remain
male projections (Gretchen. though I argued,
transcends her image). Fischer's novels offer a
social critique from a woman's perspective: a
sexed female body does not serve men but
women themselves and exposes the problems of
living a female aesthetics.
"Bodily Pleasure, Bodily Pain: Aesthetic
Experience, Gender, and Discipline In
Empfindsamkeit;" Section: "Disciplining the
Body"(Division on Eighteenth and Early
Nineteenth Century German Literature), by Lisa
C. Roetzel, Eastman School of Music, University
of Rochester
Women in German
A common reading of Empfindsamkeit has been
to associate its valorization of feeling with the
opportunity, particularly in the case of men, to
deviate from widely held categories of gender.
This paper discussed how this is not the case.
Sentimentality indeed allowed for "feminine"
excess of emotion, but disciplined both the
sentiments and the body of the reader/viewer, in
a way that was itself gendered. As the
sentimental movement perceived it, dangerous
responses to aesthetic experience were those
that made human subjects unfit for prescribed
social roles. Improper sentimental response was
thus referred to as a pathology that was treated
as one would a disease. The paper discussed
the genderization of such concepts of disease,
where the body made ill by art was feminized
and could only be treated by the medicine of
the "masculine" light of reason administered by
male "physicians" (aesthetic theorists). The
paper also discussed the implications that this
genderization had for women participants in
sentimentality. Women engaging in the
pleasure of aesthetic experience were taught to
"read like men," and temper "feminine"
emotional response with the "masculine" light of
reason. They thus became involved in a
complex relationship with aesthetic objects,
where they were both object of the male gaze
and were asked to identify with that gaze.
"Still 'No Place on Earth:' an Ecofeminist
Inquiry into Christa Wolfs work," WIG Panel:
"Christa Wolf and Cultural Politics: A Five-Year
Retrospective" by Deborah D. Jansen, West
Virginia University
Proceeding from the position that the media
attack on Christa Wolf is testimony to the strength
of her influence in the West, this paper explores
the parallels between Wolfs work and that of
American ecofeminists Riane Eisler, Susan
Griffin, Ynestra King, and Starhawk. Wolfs
longing for a society based on cooperation,
community, and a recognition of the intrinsic
value of each individual corresponds closely to
these ecofeminists' desire for a partnership-based
society that advances communication and
mutual respect; pursues the development of lifesustaining rather than life-destroying
technologies; and emphasizes relationships
rather than hierarchies, linking rather then
ranking. Wolfs position on the woman-nature
connection and on the question of an immanent
versus transcendent spirituality also resembles
that of American ecofeminists, offering insight
9
Women in German
into ways that modern society can cultivate
respect for difference.
definitions of woman or to poststructuralism's
dismantling of gender as a category.
"'Die Frau ist nicht Subjekt?': Gender and
Positionality in Christa Wolfs Critique of the
Enlightenment," WIG Session: "Feminist
perspectives on the Frankfurt School," by
Brigitte Rossbacher, Washington University, St.
Louis
"Cross-Gender Signals in the Poetry of Anna
Louisa Karsch;" Session: Eighteenth and
Early Nineteenth Century German Literature.by
Julie D. Prandi, Illinois Wesleyan University
"Die Frau ist nicht Subjekt" Max Horkheimer and
Theodor Adorno maintain in their seminal 1947
text Dialektik der Aufklaerung. This paper
examines how we (feminists) are to understand
this assertion. Do Horkheimer and Adorno in
effect reinscribe and perpetuate woman's
historical position as the non-rational Other to
the man of reason, thus remaining locked in an
androcentric model grounded in essentialist
notions of woman? Or can this claim, read from
a positional perspective on gender and within
the context of Horkheimer and Adorno's broadbased critique of the teleology of western
civilization, which they see as resulting in the
domination and objectification of woman,
nature, and--this is clearly their primary concern-of man himself, be viewed as a critique of
woman's (and man's) lack of subjective agency?
In this paper, I address these questions by
illuminating the relationship of woman, nature
and culture as theorized in Dia/ektik der
Aufklaerung focusing on the question of gender
and positionality. In so doing, it becomes
apparent that many branches of feminist
criticism share the basic assumptions of the
dialectic of enlightment, which functions more
specifically as a foil for the cultural pessimism of
the late 1970s and 1980s, a pessimism which-particularly in Germany--grew more extreme in
light of the rearmament of the superpowers,
mounting ecological devastation, and the
Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Yet many
feminist theorists view the seemingly
unobstructable course of Western civilization as
inflected by gender. This becomes particularly
clear in the texts of Christa Wolf, a writer of the
former GDR who expands on Horkheimer and
Adorno's critique of instrumental reason by
taking woman's lives as a position from which
change can be effected. Through emphasizing
the historical specifity of Wolfs texts such as
Kein Ort. Nirgends and the fluidity of social and
discursive relationships foregrounded in the
concept of positionality, I argue that Wolf
articulates woman's historical construction as
second-degree objects in an asymmetical
gender hierarchy without resorting to essentialist
Cross-gender signals in literary texts are those I
define as traits, metaphors, or themes thought
appropriate to one sex being attributed to or
authored by the other. In her poetry, Anna
Louisa Karsch has a wealth of such signals,
which have greatly affected her reception and
which she handles knowingly and subtly. The
feminist critic Susan S. Friedman has pointed to
shifts in meaning arising from the reader's
awareness of the sex of the author; as well as the
variance a reader perceives between the
biological sex of a character and what this same
character says and does. In my paper I examine
how the cross-gender signals in Karsch's poetry
helped her to impress critics Moses Mendelssohn
and Herder; then I proceed to give some
examples from her poetry of such effects.
Whereas the purpose of cross-gender signals in
the literature of the eighteenth century was
usually to reinforce the social dichotomy of
male and female roles, Karsch presented her
listeners and readers with examples of positive,
natural, liberating cross-gender signals, for men
as well as for women. I use one of her war
poems, one autobiographical poem, and one of
the odes to the Creator to illustrate her artful use
of cross-gender signals.
"Gender in Benjamin;" Panel: "Feminist
Rereadings of the Frankfurt School" by Eva
Geulen
Taking leave from other feminist approaches to
Benjamin (Wolff, Chow, Buck-Morse et alia), the
paper addresses the need to reconstruct the role
of gender as it informs all of Benjamin's writings,
thus shifting the focus from the (negative or
positive) representation of women to gender and
gender difference as a formative category in all
of Benjamin's thought. Starting from a critique of
Elisabeth Bronfen's account and use of
Benjamin in her book Over Her Dead Body, the
paper argues a)that gender is an integral part of
more general theories of production in
Benjamin, and b) that the use of gendered
eroticism in his writing, particularly on the level
of imagery and metaphor, cannot be reduced to
aestheticism, -- neither can his theories of
10
production be reduced to aesthetic production.
Both of these issues need instead to be traced
back to Benjamin's early reflections on language
in his 1916 essay "On Language as such and on
Human Language" which accounts for the link
between metaphoricity and gender. The second
part of the paper reconstructs the prehistory of
Benjamin's shift from an essentializing and
highly stereotypical conception of gender
difference to gender difference as an effect of
linguistic and more generally discursive
structures in the language essay by tracing his
earlier involvement in the youth-movement. A
reading of a representative text from this phase -usually shunned by all Benjamin-interpreters
despite or perhaps because of the explicit
concern for sexuality and gender -- demonstrates
the reasons why Benjamin was forced to make
the move from conceiving of gender as
empirical fact in an essentializing manner to
thinking gender as a linguistic and discursive
phenomenon. The paper's conclusion suggests
that, while Benjamin's reasons for this shift are
indeed problematic, its effects remain to be
examined since they open up the possibility that
Benjamin's work might well offer contributions to
the ongoing discussions of gender and
discourse.
"On the Epistemology and Aesthetics of
Father-Daughter Incest in Heinrich von Kleist's
'Die Marquise von 0 ... '" by Irmela Marei
Krueger-Fuerhoff, Freie Universitaet Berlin
Secondary literature on Heinrich von Kleist's
"Die Marquise von 0 ... " (1808) has focused
primarily on the heroine's unconscious
impregnation, often reducing the erotically ,
charged scene of reconciliation between the
young woman and her father to a substitute for
the sexual encounter with the Russian count.
My paper proposed a reading that focuses on the
father-daughter relationship in order to trace the
epistemological and aesthetic impact of both
scenes of taboo sexuality. In analyzing the
conceptions of knowledge, sexuality, femininity,
and family bonds that intersect in the
"Marquise," I pursued three questions. First, how
does Kleist's text account for the
.
epistemological difficulties in distinguishing
emotions from eroticism within an early 19thcentury family, an institution which social
historians have argued to be inherently
intimate? Second, how does the construction of
a virtuous daughter coincide with the making of
a desirable bride, and in what sense does the
heroine's compliance with bourgeois
Women in German
conceptions of femininity foreclose any
knowledge about her stance towards her father's
desire? Finally, to what extent does the novella
use theatrical topoi in order to present incest as
a genuinely aesthetic event?
Whereas the Marquise's enigmatic pregnancy
incites the family's quest for knowledge, the
eroticized embrace between father and
daughter does not provoke any discursive
response from the story's characters. My paper
argued that this epistemological asymmetry can
be traced back to the particular nexus between
two early 19th-century discourses on sexuality, a
theological and a medical one. While the
Marquise and her relatives pursue or evade
knowledge within the limits of these discourses,
Kleist's text not only reveals the erotic
implications of any quest for knowledge but also
problematizes under what circumstances an
apprehension of taboo sexuality can be
obtained at all.
Feminist literary criticism has argued that any
female character embodies dichotomies of
sexual virtue or debauchery-- unless she is a
daughter. However, the bourgeois conception
that a daughter is good, i.e. chaste, or sexually
active and dispelled from her parents' home,
hence no longer a daughter, is countered by
Kleist in an extremely ironic turn. In the
"Marquise," the reconstitution of the young
widow's precarious daughterhood is presented as
the result of her erotic devotion on her father's
lap. This scene overlays intra-familial chastity
with extra-familial sensuality, creating an image
of filial duty that is at the same time highly
sexualized.
While the offensive scene of the Marquise's rape
is screened by the novella's famous dash, Kleist
aestheticizes the embrace of father and
daughter by drawing on a wide range of literary
and pictorial traditions from bourgeois
"Trauerspiel," "Ruehrstueck," and "tableaux
vivants." These parodistic quotes both veil and
display scandalous sexuality and invite the
reader to participate in the staging of fatherdaughter incest.
"Mixed Race': A Signifying Marker in Gabriele
Reuter's Aphrodite und ihr Dichter," Special
Session: "Mixed 'Race' and Identity
Formation: An Issue in Women's Relationships
in Literature in German?" by C. Griesshaber
Weninger
11
In the paper I explore the role of the bordercrossing "mulatto" Miss Alison, who is in search
of her identity. Marked in terms of "race",
gender, culture, and geography, this mixed
"race" woman finds herself in a multiple-bind
situation. Her position and identity are discussed
with respect to the other characters of the story
and by contextualizing the text historically
(Gobineau). In contrast to Linda Kraus Worley,
who analyzed the novella recently as an
example of the "Ugly Heroine"-motif, I argue,
that by providing Miss Alison with a British
educational background, Reuter reduces the
Other to the same (Laura Donaldson). At the
same time this technique allows Reuter to draw
a marginalized being from the periphery into the
center of the action. However, Reuter constructs
a woman who is trapped between two "races"
and two cultures. While her British education
("ein Gelehrten-Experiment") and civility could
possibly establish her as white and British, in late
19th century Egypt - which is under British rule these acquired attributes can only function as a
veneer. Ultimately, Miss Alison finds herself cut
off from her black roots, as well as from marriage
to a member of the European colony. The
special achievement of the novella is the way in
which it portrays a doubly mixed character, both
racially and culturally, which for Miss Alison
results in an existential homelessness.
"I have only, what I am already': Identity and
Identity Politics in Gertrud Kolmar's Briefe an
die Schwester Hilde 1938-1943", Session on
"Gertrud Kolmar: Identity and History," by
Monika Shafi
Gertrud Kolmar's self-assessment, as quoted in
the title, seems at first glance to invoke those all
too familiar notions of essentialism, fixed gender
identities and confirm the idea of a stable self
which unfolds and develops according to the the
classical humanist telos. I argue that Kolmar's
Briefe an die Schwester Hilde presents a test-case
of a woman writer's multifaceted identity
formation in the face of her impending
destruction. I base my interpretation of the the
key terms-- self, identity, and gender-- on the
concept of positionality, as it has been
formulated by Linda Alcoff. In understanding
"woman" not as a stable, fixed category, but
rather as a "relational term" it allows us to focus
on the particular position a woman occupies
and on the practices she is engaged in.
I find this approach particularly useful for an
analysis of Kolmar's Briefe, for it enables reading
Women in German
the text as an example of "identity politics", i.e.
a complex and ambivalent process of coming to
terms with herself as a poet, Jew and woman and
thereby inwardly reSisting Nazi ideology and
politics. What is particularly striking in Kolmar's
epistolary dialogue with her sister is the
cotemporality of a traditional female and poetic
self (as expressed in the title quote) with nonconventional modes, as she seeks them for
example in the figure of the stoic Spartan
woman or in a completely withdrawn gypsy
woman. This tension shapes the structure of the
letters from which Kolmar emerges as the
Antigone-like figure who defies her oppressors by
willingly accepting her fate and destiny.
The "heroic self' Kolmar creates for herself has
been criticized by Lawrence Langer as an
admirable but ultimately naive and ineffective
mode, since its inherent humanist values were
rendered meaningless in the world of the
concentration camp. I concluded my talk by
discussing the importance and validity of
Kolmar's "heroic self', because it ultimately
decides how we judge her life and legacy.
"Vergessenheit ist der wahre Tod. BirchPfeiffer und gendered Censorship"
by Helga Kraft, University of Florida.
Warum ist Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer im 20.
Jahrhundert unbekannt? Sie war eine
ausserordentlich erfolgreiche Dramatikerin,
Intendantin und Schaupielerin, und nach ihr
wurde die Epoche zwischen 1840 und 1860 "die
Birch-Pfeiffer-Ara im deutschen Theater"
genannt. Sie hat Ober hundert Stocke verfasst,
von denen viele Ober fOnfzig Jahre lang ueberall
zur AuffOhrung gelangten. Fast achtzig ihrer
Dramen wurden auch verbffentlicht, und sie hat
das Bild der starken Frau in ihr Werk
eingeschmuggelt. Doch gibt es fast keine
Sekundarliteratur, und ihr Nachlass schlummert,
fOr aile verschlossen, im Archiv des Muenchner
Theatermuseums.
1st Birch-Pfeiffer ein Opfer von "gendered
censorship?" Die Dramatikerin musste, wie aile
zeigenOssischen Stockeschreiber im 19.
Jahrhundert, ihre Stocke einer strengen
politischen Zensur anpassen. DarOber hinaus hat
sie aber auch Selbstzensur geObt, weil sie ihr
Theater am Mannertheater messen musste.
TragOdien nahm man ihr als Frau sowieso nicht
abo Zu ihren Lebzeiten noch erhielten viele ihrer
Stocke positive Rezensionen. 1m nachhinein
wurde ihr Wert in der Theater- und
12
Women in German
Liteaturgeschichte immer weiter
heruntergespielt und ihre Leistungen
geschmalert. Nur noch in wenigen
Nachschlagewerken gibt es kurze Angaben;
meist wird sie als "Adaptorin von Romanen fOr
die BOhne" abgetan, obgleich fast die Halfte
ihrer Stocke Originalschauspiele sind.
Anhand des Beispiels Birch-Pfeiffer wurde die
Frage nach der Realitat von "gendered censor
ship" gestellt und sechs Punkte in Betracht
gezogen. (1) Inwieweit waren (und sind) Kritiker
gegen Frauenkunst voreingenommen? (2)
Setzten schreibende Frauen oft ihre eigenen
Leistungen herab, weil sie nicht offen gegen
Manner konkurrieren konnten? (3) Erhielten
verdienstvolle Schriftstellerinnen den gleichen
Platz in der Geschichtsschreibung wie
vergleichbare mannliche Kollegen? (4) Wurden
wichtige gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Aspkete
in ihren Werken trivialisiert, nur weil sie von
Frauen stammten? (5) Passen gewisse Typen
von Schriftstellerinnen nicht in den neuen
Kanon der deutschen Forschung (einschliesslich
der feministischen)? (6) Wird noch heute der
Zugang zu Nachlassen von Schriftstellerinnen
zensiert?
and other signifiying social practices, her own
approach to writing is exemplary of recent
scholarly efforts not to privilege one analytical
category over others and thereby inadvertently
universalize the neglected categories.
The book begins with an overview of
contemporary theoretical positions on
embodiment, i.e. the intersection of the material
body and discourse, with allusions to Horkheimer
and Adorno, Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge,
Kristeva, Lacan, Foucault, Sioterdijk, Turner,
Judith Butler, Agnes Heller, among others.
Adelson argues that Horkheimer and Adorno
have overemphasized the role of ideology, while
overlooking the agency of the material body.
Foucault, too, she faults with stressing discourse
and institutionalized power to the neglect of real
individual beings. She credits Negt and Kluge,
upon whose work she often draws in her ensuing
literary analyses, with rethinking consciousness
as grounded in and having consequences for the
human body. As the site at which inner and
outer, personal and social, concrete and
abstract interesect and converge, the body is, in
her words, " ... that through which all human
experience is filtered, processed, and pursued."
(7)
Birch-Pfeiffer erkannte zu ihren Lebzeiten die
Realitat von "gendered censorschip". Sie
schreibt "Alles vergibt euch die Welt, sei's
Ruhm, Stand -- ja selbst Laster ... FOr eines nur
hofft ihr umsonst um Vergebung im Leben und
Tode: Nimmer verzeihn wird die Welt Erfolge
der dichtenden Frau."
Book Reviews
Adelson, Leslie, Making Bodies Making
History: Feminism and German Identity
(Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 1993)
This work constitutes a significant contribution to
feminist Germanist scholarship, in reassessing
how the interplay of materiality, embodiment
and signification have been examined by
theorists, scholars and authors of the last 50
years. Adelson deftly accomplishes this by way
of example, analyzing questions of gender
identity and difference in West German culture
via three German-language prose texts of the
1970's and 1980's: Anne Duden's Ubergang,
TORKAN's Tufan: Brief an einen is/amischen
Bruder, and Jeannette Lander's Ein Sommer in
der Woche der Itke K. She not only shows how
power is inextricably manifested through the
configurations of race, class, ethnicity, gender
Drawing upon Heller's discussion of
historiography, Adelson argues that we must
acknowledge that the interpretive nature of
historical narrative also encompasses the making
of the body, and logically turns to literary
techniques employed to project images of the
body. In this respect, her work is also a
contribution to the so-called "Historian's Debate,"
for like many engaged in this public discussion,
Adelson is concerned with the interpretation of
history as a means to construct an identity for the
West German historical present.
While novels of the earlier postwar period often
employed the body as metaphor or allegory for
national or moral issues, contemporary literature
often presents the body as the heterogenous site
of contested identities. Anne Duden's Ubergang,
a cult favorite among German feminists, serves
as an example of the potential for racism within
some aspects of feminist aesthetics. Its use of
the imagery and symbolic meaning of blackness
could, on the one hand, be interpreted as a kind
of oppositionality, not unlike the feminist
appropriaton of Lacan's designation of woman
as lack or absence as means to resist the
dominant order. However, Adelson argues that
Duden exhibits a less than benign racial
indifference, in neglecting to problematize the
13
protagonist's positionality as a white German
woman within a specific socio-historical period.
Adelson addresses the difficulty feminist theorists
and critics encounter in negotiating their way
between the pitfalls of feminist essentialism and
poststructuralist relativism: while the former
approach leads to a universalization of the
oppression of women, the latter maintains
difference at the level of discourse and denies
its embodied implications. She recommends
the notion of positionality as a useful analytical
tool, when used not in the static sense of a
'politics of location,' which reduces women's
position to a metaphor for 'woman,' but rather, in
De Lauretis' more dynamic conceptualization,
which takes into account embodiment and the
movement between margins and centers of
power.
The conventional division between victims and
perpetrators can be overcome by reconceiving
of women's bodies as both inscribed by material
configurations and also as the physical organ of
their own agency. Adelson demonstrates this in
her reading of TORKAN's work, which she
surmises may have achieved such popularity
among West German feminists because of its
stark delineation of the female protagonist as
victim of Islamic patriarchy. She argues that
such a reception encourages a further
objectification of women, producing the "Third
World Woman" as a singular monolithic subject.
TORKAN's text actually defies such
metaphorical readings of victimhood through its
concern with heterogenous inscriptions of bodily
experience for both Iranian women and men.
The material effects of positionality are also
displayed in Lander's novel about a white Jewish
girl raised in 1940's Atlanta amidst other
southern white girls and African Americans in
her neighborhood. The Jewish characters in
this novel are not presented merely as victims of
a specific historical trauma but also situated in
relation to other forms of oppression which affect
them and other minorities differently. The result
is a disruption of the traditionally binary relation
of "Jews and Germany", and instead a
thematization of Jewish identity refracted by
numerous social factors.
In her conceptualizations of subjects occupying
multiple sites, Adelson demands of the reader a
performative reenactment, for the organization
of her material defies a purely linear reading.
While we follow with avid interest a particular
line of discussion, other interesting points of
Women in German
departure are introduced, luring the curious
reader into the endnotes to pursue tangents
elaborated at a level of sophistication meriting
attention in the main 'body' of the text. The
author has clearly taken pains to accurately
document her arguments and thoughtfully
intersperses recommendations of supplementary
writings of potential interest to her readers. The
resulting 35 pages of citations and endnotes thus
constitute even in themselves an invaluable
resource.
Angelica Fenner
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Dodds, Dinah and Pam Allen-Thompson, eds.
The Wall in my Backyard: East German
Women in Transition. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press, 1994.
This oral history volume will become an
invaluable text for post-1945 German culture
courses and research on the effects of the
unification of Germany on East German women.
Consisting of interviews with eighteen East
German women in a period of two to five months
after political unification in October 1990 and of
summarized follow-up interviews from the
summer of 1992, the collection allows women to
narrate their own stories as authentic documents
of self-examination and reflection on the past
and present. Their stories undermine pretenses
of equality between men and women under
socialist "mommie-policies" and contradictory
sets of social policies. The women's critical
evaluations of difficulties encountered during
the transition from a socialist welfare state to a
social market economy raise many issues as to
the rights and responsibilities of individuals in
democratic societies.
With these interviews, Dodds and AllenThompson provide a crucial forum for East
German women to define their own problems in
their own language before, during and after the
tumultuous time of the Wende. In their
outspoken narratives, the women are highly
critical of their former state but also skeptical of
women's equality and rights in the West. By
providing historical grounding for American
readers through a well-documented and
informative introduction (23 pages) to GDR laws
and practices, particularly the GDR's
Frauenpolitik, and through a comprehensive
chronology of events (between October 1989 and
December 1990) along with a glossary of key
terms and names, the authors invite east-west
14
Women in German
dialogue and further study of texts contained in
the selected bibliography. In their sensitively
written introduction to each interview, the
editors/authors highlight and analyze crucial
elements of the interview without interfering with
the unique mixture of authenticity and
subjectivity that is inherent in this genre. They
do not attempt to rectify the ambiguities and
differences found in the text, for example in the
relationship between Party membership and the
securing of privileges. The result is an
untampered tapestry of stories and perspectives
by GDR women and a differentiated picture
about women losses Uob security and many of
the women's existing rights along with autonomy,
history, and identity) and gains that are
frequently tied to a new sense of selfdetermination in many aspects of their lives.
West. Following in the tradition of the literarydocumentary self-testimonies by GDR women
launched by Sarah Kirsch (Die Pantherfrau,
1972) and continued by Maxie Wander (Guten
Morgen, du SchOne, 1977) and Anna Mudry
(Gute Nacht, du SchOne, 1991), Dinah Dodd's
and Pam Allen-Thompson's excellent volume is
successful in capturing another landmark in the
lives of East German women.
The interviewees, all residing in Berlin, range in
age from twenty to sixty-nine and represent a
variety of minority groups, including professing
Christians, GDR citizens of other national origins,
lesbians and a disproportionally high percentage
of well-educated women. Among them are a
representative to the Bundestag, a commissioner
for Equal Opportunity (Magistrat),
filmmaker/author, a film editor for East German
television, an urban planner, a city
administrator, a mental health therapist, a retired
university professor/women's activist (oldest), a
press secretary, a house-keeper, a water safety
instructor, and a language student (youngest).
These urban women defy the victim status of
East German women and instead give testimony
to the inner emancipation and resourcefulness
that many developed in their socialist society.
Their stories speak of organizing new women's
projects in unified Germany and developing a
new sense of determination to succeed
personally and professionally. In some narratives
guilt is expressed over having already achieved
financial security and personal fulfillment while
other East German women face unemployment,
anxieties, and suffer from the lack of means for
self-improvement.
International Conference:
Jewries At The Frontier
Perhaps some readers or critics will find the
interviewees' relatively strong sense of self and
their unfaltering dedication to improving their
own lives and their new society somewhat
problematic and overly zealous, rather than
being strong representatives of East German
women's social reality after unification. However,
the editors' unpatrionizing tone in their analysiS
of the narratives while refraining from overgeneralization make this an exemplary book for
future productive exchanges between East and
Barbara Mabee
Oakland University
Information from the
Wig-L List
by Vibha Gokhale
The Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish
Studies and Research at the University of Cape
Town, South Africa, will be hosting an
international conference "JEWRIES AT THE
FRONTIER" at the University of Cape Town from
11-13 August 1996.
The conference co-ordinators, Milton Shain
(University of Cape Town) and Sander L. Gilman
(University of Chicago), are calling for papers
which will explore the Jewish experience in
frontier settings. The emphasis will be on Jews
as a minority within a minority with hegemonic
power in colonial and post colonial settings.
Thus the conference will examine in an
interdiSCiplinary manner South African Jewry;
Anglophone Indian Jewry; Canadian Jewry with
a focus on Quebec Jewry and Jewry in the
Northern Territories; American Jewry of the
colonial period and American Jewry with a focus
on the South (French-speaking Louisiana) and
the Spanish-speaking Southwest; early Australian
and New Zealand Jewry; German Jewry
(Haskalah and post-Haskalah) in the Baltic,
Central, and Eastern Europe inclduing the nonGerman speaking areas of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire; Jewry at the geographic margins in
Latin and South America; Ukrainian Jewry in
the 18th and 19th centu ries; and any other
communities that fit the parameters of the
conference. Abstracts of presentations are
required before 31 January 1996.
Presentations will be in English. There is a
limited amount of subsidy for accommodation in
Cape Town. For further information please
15
contact either: Milton Shain, Kaplan Centre for
Jewish Studies,University of Cape Town, Private
Bag, Rondebosch, Cape Town,7700, South
Africa. E-mail: Shain@beattie.uct.ac.za OR
Sander L Gilman, University of Chicago E-mail:
slgiman@midway.uchicago.edu
phone: 312-702-8494
Invitation to a subscription for the
Occasional Papers in German Studies
The series "Occasional Papers in German
Studies" is a new Canadian publication
focussing on the dissemination of
interdisciplinary scholarship in German
language, literature, history, politics, sociology,
philosophy, art, music,and other related fields.
While there are scholarly outlets in other
countries focussing on research in German
Studies, there is as yet no such journal in
Canada. The "Occasional Papers" series is
intended to provide the springboard for a
reputable, refereed Canadian journal in German
Studies. The target audience consists of
professors and students in German departments
and interested colleagues in Departments of
History and Political Science in Canada, the
United States, and Germany, and anyone else
interested in interdisciplinary scholarship
involving "things German."
At least four numbers per year will be published,
each of them containing one paper of 25 to 40
pages in length. When possible, issues will
contain several papers on a common topic.
Women in German
Requests for subscription may be sent bye-mail
to mprokop@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca, or
mzimmer@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca.
The annual subscription rate is CAN $15.00,
payable by check or money order in Canadian
funds to "Germanic Languages, University of
Alberta."
The Journal of International Communication
invites papers for its Special Issue on
INTERNATIONAL FEMINISM(S) (June 1996
issue), Guest edited by Prof. Annabelle
Sreberny-Mohammadi
This issue is devoted to an exploration of
international feminism(s) as theoretical
constructs, practical politics, cultural practices.
Articles that combine such kinds of analysis, and
also provide comparative or "global"
perspectives, are particularly welcome.
Contributions are invited from across and among
(and outside) academic disciplines.
Proposals may be sent to and Notes for
Contributors requested from the Guest Editor at:
as19@leicester.ac.uk, or
Prof. Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi
Director, Centre for Mass Communication
Research
University of Leicester
104 Regent Road
Leicester LE1 7L T
England
Fax: 0533 523874
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
NUMBER 1 (October 1994)
Matthias Zimmer: German Unification in
Historical Perspective
NUMBER 2 (February 1995)
Manfred Prokop: A Survey of the State of
German Studies in Canada
Papers are currently being planned on a topic in
feminist linguistics, the PDS, and aspects of the
Weimar Republic.
The annual subscription rate is CAN $15.00.
Communications and papers should be sent to:
Manfred Prokop, Department of Germanic
Languages
Matthias Zimmer, Department of History
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada T6G 2E6
Women's History Exibit in New York
In celebration of Women's History Month, the
Leo Baeck Institute held a book reception to
honor a recently published anthology edited by
Jessica Jacoby, Claudia Schoppmann and
Wendy Zena -Henry, entitled, Nach der Shoa
geboren ( Born after the Shoah), an anthology of
Jewish women in post-war Germany.
The exibition entitled, "From Glueckel of
Hameln to Else Lasker-SchOler", will include
artwork and archival material from the LBI
collection. Collages by contemporary artist, Beth
Haber, on Glueckel of Hameln will be on
display. Ms. Haber will discuss the impact of
memory and Jewish history on contemporary art.
The exibit will be on display from March 14 April 14, 1995.
I
16
Women in German
Opening hours: Mon-Thur, 9:30-4:30, Fri 9:302:30.
http://www.oeh.unilinz.ac.at:8001/-female/female. html
useful resource guide on the World
From the Internet
1. Dieter Belschner, Institut fOr Phonetik und
sprachliche Kommunikation, LudwigsMaximilians-Universitat MOnchen
(dieter.@sun1.phonetik.uni-muenchen.de) tells
us that, "Die Universitats-Bibliothek MOnchen
(UBMLlNE) und die Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
(BSBLlNE) sind nun auch Obers Internet
erreichbar."
http://www.laum.unihannover.de/iln/bibliotheken/muenchen.html
2. There is also a New feminist discussion list in
Austria.
The list does not duplicate WIG-L activities and
discussions at all; so far, the most extended
discussion on FEMALE-L concerned a nuclear
power plant in the Czech Republic, there were
job announcements and some new items. The
list appears to be mostly frequented by scientists
with feminist concerns. All women are invited to
enter a cross-national and cross-continental
dialogue on FEMALE-L. FEMALE-L is a place
where women can initiate discussions of new
research questions send requests for information
pertaining to feminist research and teaching
place calls for papers make announcements
available (conferences, exhibits, new
books,information sites etc.) find information on
new additions to our gopher and WWW entries.
When you sign on the list, please send a short
intro and bio. Contributions in German AND
English are welcome!
How to subscribe:
listserv@alijku04.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at
subscribe female-I firstname lastname
Please visit our gopher and WWW homepage.
gopher. edvz. uni-linz.ac.at
Informationen der Institute/Abteilungen
Koordinationsstelle fOr Frauenforschung
http://140.78.254.2:8001/-female/female.html
For more information write to:
Elisabeth Binder (e. binder@jk.uni-linz.ac.at)
Birgit Schroeder (b.schroeder@jk.uni-linz.ac.at)
Elisabeth J. Binder
Koordinationsstelle fOr Frauenforschung
Universitat Linz
Altenbergerstr. 60
A-4040 Linz
Tel: +43-732-2468 9203
Fax: +43-732-2468 9212
WWW (under construction):
3. Another resource for women's studies
programs is:
http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/sorokin/womenll
hunt-wir/wir. home page .html
For more information contact: Laura Hunt
lahun@umich.edu
Prizes and Awards
Hilde Domin wird mit dem Literaturpreis 1995 der
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung ausgezeichnet. Die
Schriftstellerin erhalt die mit 20 000 Mark
dotierte Auszeichnung fOr ihr Iyrisches,
essayistisches und autobiographisches Werk. Die
Adenauer-Stiftung bezeichnet in ihrer
BegrOndung die Gedichte und Essays als
Postulate fOr eine "Humanitat zu Lebzeiten" und
wOrdigt in ihrer BegrOndung den Einsatz
Hildegard Domins, die zu den gro~en
Zeitzeugen des Jahrhunderts zahle, fOr die
Freiheit und Wahrhaftigkeit des Wortes.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Feb. 9,
1995, No. 34, p. 37
Goethe Institute Chicago has a video titled Hilde
Domin: Heimkehr ins Wort, Buch und Regie:
Walter Koch, Prod. Unda-Film, 1985, VHSNTSC, German, 31 Min., Text. Der Videofilm
zeigt Stationen im Leben der Lyrikerin Hilde
Domin. In Koln geboren und aufgewachsen, Exil
in Rom und Santo Domingo, Seit 1960 wohnt
sie mit ihrem Mann in Heidelberg.
Dagmar Leupold, Schriftstellerin, erhalt in der
Bayerischen Akademie der KOnste in MOnchen
am 31. Januar den staatlichen Foerderpreis fOr
junge Schrifsteller. Bei S. Fischer in Frankfurt
am Main erschienen zuletzt BOcher: Wie
Treibholz (Gedichte; 1992), Edmond: Geschichte
einer Sehnsucht (Roman; 1993) und Die Lust der
Frauen auf Seite 13 (Gedichte;1994).
Source: BC5rsenblatt fOr den deutschen
Buchhandel, 24.1.1995, p. 24
Dagmar Leupold, 1955 in Niederlahnstein
geboren, studierte in Marburg, TObingen und
New York. Sie lebt in MOnchen. Ihr neuestes
Buch Federgewicht, veroffentlicht von S.Fischer
Verlag, 240S., ISBN 3100441036 OM 34 ist ab
17. Marz im Buchhandel.
Die deutsche Lyrikerin Elke Erb erhalt in diesem
Jahr den mit umgerechnet 28.600 Mark
dotierten Erich-Fried-Preis. Das teilte die
Vorsitzende der internationalen Erich-FriedGesellschaft fOr Literatur und Sprache, Inge
17
Jens, in Wien mit. Die in Berlin lebende Elke Erb
war von der Osterreicherin Friederike MayrOcker
ausgewahlt worden, die in diesem Jahr Tragerin
der Erich-Fried-Ehrung und damit alleinige
Jurorin fOr den gleichnamigen Preis ist.
Oberreicht wird die Auszeichnung am 2. April im
Wiener Akademietheater.
Source: Sueddeutsche Zeitung, No. 30,
Monday, Feb. 6, 1995, p. 11
A couple of books by Elke Erb:
Nachts halb zwei, zu Hause. Texte aus drei
Jahrzehnten. Hrsg. von Brigitte Struyzk. Leipzig:
Reclam, 1991.212 S. ISBN 3379006963. OM
10.
Unschuld, du Licht meiner Augen. Gedichte.
GOttingen: Steidl, 1994. 304 S. ISBN
3882433205 OM 38.
WinkelzOge oder Nicht vermutete,
aufschluf3reiche Verhaltnisse. Mit 57 Abb. von
Angela Hampel. Galrev Druck- und
Verlagsgesellschaft, 1991. 456 S.ISBN
3910161065. OM 40.
Grete Weil (88), Schriftstellerin und Obersetzerin,
wird fOr ihr literarisches Werk mit der CarlZuckmayer-Medaille geehrt. Die Staatskanzelei
des Ministerprasidenten von Rheinland-Pfalz,
der diese Auszeichnung seit 1979 vergibt,
wOrdigt Weil als "AngehOrige der ExilGeneration," die mit ihrer "Literatur wider das
Vergessen" Exil, Vertreibung und Ermordung der
Juden beschrieben hat. Preisverleihung war am
18. Januar.
Source: Borsenblatt fOr den Deutschen
Buchhandel, 3. Januar 1995, p. 44.
Her works include:
Am Ende der Welt. Erzahlung. 1949
Tramhalte Beethovenstraat. Roman. 1963
Happy, sagte der Onkel. Erzahlungen. 1967
Meine Schwester Antigone. Roman. 1980
Generationen. Roman. 1983
Der Brautpreis. Roman. 1988 (translated into
English)
Spatfolgen. Erzahlungen. 1992
A New Book by Christa Wolf
Die Schriftstellerin Christa Wolf hat sich nach
ihrer vor rund zehn Jahren veroffentlichten
Erzahlung "Kassandra" wieder einem antiken
Stoff zugewandt. 1m ausverkauften Berliner
Hebbel-Theater las die Schrifstellerin am
Sonntag erstmals aus ihrem neuen Manuskript
"Medea oder die Verkennung." Schon der Titel
deutet Absichten an. Anders als im Drama von
Euripides sieht die Autorin nicht die bOse,
mordwotige Mutter ihrer Kinder, sondern sucht
nach der "anderen Medea" in den frOhen
Women in German
Legenden und My then, um die Frauengestalt
"aus dem Dunkel der Verkennung"zu IOsen.
Source: SOddeutsche Zeitung, No. 30, Monday,
Feb. 6, 1995, p.11
Submitted by Elisabeth Angele, Goethe-Institut
Chicago Library,
gichicago@aol.com
New Books
Amrein, Ursula. Augenkur und Brautschau. Zur
diskursiven Logik der Geschlechterdifferenz in
Gottfried Kellers 'Sinngedicht'. Peter Lang, 1994.
339 S. ISBN 3906752615. OM 88.
Aulls, Katharina. Verbunden und gebunden.
Mutter- Tochter-Beziehungen in sechs Romanen
der siebziger und achtziger Jahre. Peter Lang,
1993. 274S. ISBN 3631456336. OM 84.
Balbach, Sonja. "Wir sind auch die kampfende
Front." Frauen in der rechten Szene. Hamburg:
Konkret Literatur, 1994. 158 S. ISBN
3894581263. OM 24.
Barckow, Klaus, and Walter Delabar, eds. Neue
Informations- und Speichermedien in der
Germanistik. Zu den Perspektiven der EDV als
Informationstrager fOr die
literaturwissenschaftliche Forschung. Peter Lang,
1994. 180 S. (Jahrbuch fOr internationale
Gerministik Reihe A:KongreBberichte. Band 38)
ISBN 3906752798. OM 101.
Berger, Franz Severin, and Christiane Holler.
TrOmmerfrauen. Alltag zwischen Hamstern und
Hoffen.Oberreuter, c1994. 250 S., zahlr. SWAbbildungen. ISBN 3800035138. OM 69.
Burmeister, Brigitte. Unter dem Namen Norma.
Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1994. 270 S. ISBN
360893216X. OM 36. (Ein Buch Ober das
Deutschland nach der Wende).
Demski, Eva. Land und Leute. Frankfurt a. M.:
Schoffling, 1994. 352 S. ISBN 389561003. OM
39.80.
Dinter, Ingrid. Unvollendete Trauerarbeit in der
DDR-Literatur. Ein Studium der
Vergangenheitsbewaltigung. Peter Lang, 1994.
149 S. ISBN 0820421820. OM 76.
Ecker, Gisela. Differenzen. Essays zu
Weiblichkeit und Kultur. DOlmen: tende, 1994
18
Eichmann-Leutenegger, Beatrice. Gertrud
Kolmar. Leben und Werk in Texten und Bildern.
2. Aufl. FrankfurtlM.: JOdischer Verlag, 1993.219
S. ISBN 3633540725.
Evers, Susanne. AI/egorie und Apologie. Die
sptite Lyrik Elisabeth Langgtissers. Peter Lang,
1994. 375 S. ISBN 3631473982. DM 95.
Feyl, Renate. Der lautlose Aufbruch. Frauen in
der Wissenschaft. KOln:Kiepenheuer und Witsch,
1994. KiWi Bd. 359. DM 16.80.
Franke, Manfred. Leben und Roman der
Elisabeth von Ardenne, Fontanes 'E"i Briest'.
Droste, 1994. 226 S. mit zahlr. Abb. ISBN
3770010248. DM 39.80.
Frauen-Adressbuch Deutschland. 3000 Adressen
von FrauenverMnden, Initiativen und
Beratungsstel/en fOr Frauen. Redaktion: Regina
Cugat Schoch. MOnchen: Heyne, 1994. 208 S.
(Heyne BOcher: 19, Heyne Sachbuch; 288) ISBN
3453070526. DM 12.
Garbe, Christine ed. Frauen lesen.
Untersuchungen und Fal/geschichten zur
"weiblichen Lektorepraxis" und zur literarischen
Sozialisation von Studentinnen. Berlin: Literatur
und Erfahrung, 1993.
GolI, Claire. Ich verzeihe keinem. Eine chronique
scandaleuse. Scherz, 1994. 336 S. DM 34.
Guida-Laforgia, Patrizia. Invisible Women Writers
in Exile in the U.S.A. New York: Lang, 1994.
(Writing about Women, vol. 12) ISBN
08820423602.
.
Hahn, Barbara. Frauen in den
Kulturwissenschaften. Von Lou Andreas-Salome
bis Hannah Arendt. MOnchen: Beck, 1994
(Beck4sche Reihe BsR; 1043) DM 28.
Hammerstein, Katharina von. Sophie MereauBrentano: Freiheit-Liebe-Weiblichkeit. Trikolore
sozialer und individuel/er Selbstbestimmung um
1800. Heidelberg: Universitatsverlag C. Winter,
1994. 325S. DM 98 (Beitrage zur neueren
Literaturgeschichte, Dritte Folge, Band 132)
ISBN 3825301834.
Hervi, Florence, ed. Das Weiberlexikon. Unter
Mitarb. von Ingeborg NOdinger. 3. Aufl. KOln:
Papyrossa, 1994. 527 S., zahlr. III. ISBN
3894380470. DM 49.80.
Women in German
Hoffman Jeep, Lynda. Feminist intertextuality.
Fiction by contemporary Argentine and German
women writers. c1994. Thesis, (Ph.D.) University
of Chicago, Committee on Comparative Studies
in Literature, March 1994.
Holzhauer, Johanna. Frauen an der Macht.
Profile prominenter Politikerinnen. Frankfurt am
Main: Eichborn, 1994. 196 S. ISBN
3821804378. DM 24,80.
Kahlweit, Cathrin. Damenwahl. Politikerinnen in
Deutschland. MOnchen: Beck, 1994. (Beck'sche
Reihe BsR 1069) DM 17.80.
Klarer, Mario. Frau und Utopie. Feministische
Literaturtheorie und utopischer Diskurs im angloamerikanischen Roman. Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1993. 172 S. DM 28.
KIOger, Ruth. Katastrophen. Dber deutsche
Literatur. GOttingen: Wallstein-Verlag, 1994. 229
S. ISBN 3892440565. DM 34.
Kolmar, Gertrud. Susanna. Mit einem Nachwort
von Thomas Sparr. Frankfurt a. M.: JOdischer
Verlag, 1993. 90 S. ISBN 3633540733
Loster-Schneider, Gudrun. Sophie La Roche.
Paradoxien weiblichen Schreibens im 18.
Jahrhundert. TObingen: G. Narr, 1994. 500 S.
(Mannheimer Beitrage zur Sprach- und
Literaturwissenschaft 26) ISBN 3823350269. DM
96.
Macintyre, Ben. Vergessenes Land. Die Spuren
der Elisabeth Nietzsche. Aus dem Englischen
Obertragen von Mabel Lesch-Rey. Leipzig:
Reclam, 1994. 280 S.ISBN 3379015105. DM
22.
Meyer, Ursula L., ed. Philosophinnen-Lexikon.
Aachen: ein-Fach-Verlag, 1994. 382 S.
(Philosophinnen; 2) ISBN 39280890506. DM
47.
Pieper, Annemarie: Aufstand des stillgelegten
Geschlechts. EinfOhrung in die feministische
Ethik. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1993. 188S.
(Herder Spektrum ; 4231) ISBN 3451042312. DM
17.80.
Reichart, Elisabeth, ed. Osterreichische
Dichterinnen. Salzburg/Wien: Otto MOiler, 1993.
216 S. DM 29.80.
19
Reichart, Elisabeth. Sakkorausch. Salzburg: Otto
MOiler, 1994. 80 S. ISBN 3701308810. DM
29.80.
Rinser, Luise. Gratwanderung. Briefe der
Freundschaft an Karl Rahner. KOsel, 1994. 470
S. ISBN 3466203902. DM 58.
Roberts, Ulla. Starke MOtter - ferne V8ter.
TOchter reflektieren ihre Kindheit im
Nationa/sozialismus und in der Nachkriegszeit.
Fischer Taschenbuch, 1994. Bd. 11075 ISBN
3596110750. DM 14.90.
Rullmann, Marit. Philosophinnen. Von der Antike
bis zur Aufkl8rung. 1. Autl. Dortmund: Ed.
Ebersbach im eFeF-Verlag, 1993. 331 S, III.
ISBN 3905493446. DM 54.
Schmidt, Paul Gerhard, ed. Die Frau in der
Renaissance. Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz, 1994.
264 S. (WolfenbOttler Abhandlungen zur
Renaissanceforschung 14) ISBN 3447035196.
DM 98.
Schubert, Helga. Die Andersdenkende.
MOnchen: Deutscher Taschenbuch, 1994. 240
S. (DTV ; 11850) ISBN 3423118504 DM 14,90.
Schotte-Lihotzky, Margarete. Erinnerungen aus
dem Widerstand. Das k8mpferische Leben einer
Architektin 1938-1945. Wien: ProMedia, 1994.
208 S. ISBN 3900478805 DM 28.
Sichelschmidt, Gustav. Dichter und ihre Frauen.
Droste, 1994. 292S. ISBN 3770010086. DM
39.80.
Steinke, Angela. Ontologie der Lieblosigkeit.
Untersuchungen zum VerM/tnis von Mann und
Frau in der frOhen Prosa von Ernst Weiss. Peter
Lang, 1994. 253 pp. ISBN 631474067. DM 79.
Stern, Carola. Der Text meines Herzens. Das
Leben der Rahel Varnhagen. Rowohlt, 1994.
320 S. ISBN 3498062891. DM 39.80.
Stienen, Inga. Leben zwischen zwei Welten.
TOrkische Frauen in Deutschland. Weinheim:
Beltz Quadriga, 1994. 112 S. ISBN
3886792447. DM 39.80.
Uremovic, Olga, and Gundula erter, eds. Frauen
zwischen Grenzen. Rassismus und Nationalismus
in der feministischen Diskussion. Campus, 1994.
200 S. ISBN 359335053X. DM 29,80.
Women in German
Usborne, Karen. Elizabeth von Arnim. Eine
Biographie. Aus dem Englischen von Klaus
Modick. Frankfurt a. M.: SchOffling, 1994. 528 S.
ISBN 3895616001. DM 49.80
Wagnerova, Alena. Milena Jesenska'Alle meine
Arlikel sind Liebesbriefe' Biographie. Mannheim:
Bollmann, 1994. 210 S. zahlr. Abb.ISBN
3927901547. DM 38.
Weiblichkeit und weibliches Schreiben.
Poststrukturalismus, Weibliche Aesthetik,
Ku/turel/es Selbstverst8ndnis. Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1994. 233 S. DM 32.
Weiss, Ruth. Wege im harlen Gras. Erinnerungen
einer deutschen JOdin im sOdlichen Afrika.
Nachwort von Nadime Gordimer. Wuppertal:
Peter Hammer, 1994. 304 S. ISBN 3872946226.
DM 32.
Submitted by Elisabeth Angele, Goethe-Institut
Chicago Library
gichicago@aol.com
Books for German Culture Course
Ackermann, Irmgard, and Harald Weinrich, eds.
Eine nicht nur deutsche Literatur. Zur
Standorlbestimmung der 'Auslanderliteratur'.
MOnchen: Piper, 1986.
Ackermannn, Irmgard. In zwei Sprachen leben.
Berichte, Erz8hlungen, Gedichte von Ausl8ndern.
MOnchen: dtv, 1992. 3rd ed.
Benz, Wolfgang, ed. Rechtsextremismus in der
Bundesrepublik. Voraussetzungen,
ZusammenMnge, Wirkungen. Frankfurt a.M.:
Fischer, 1989.
BOhnke, Heiner, and Harald Wittich, eds.
Buntesdeutschland. Ansichten zu einer
multikulturellen Gesel/schaft. Reinbek bei
Hamburg: Rowohlt taschenbuch, 1991.
Donhoff, Marion et al. Weil das Land sich 8ndern
mufJ. Ein Manifest. Reinbek bei Hamburg:
Rowohlt, 1992.
Jurgs, Michael, and Freimut Duve, eds. Stoppt
die Gewalt! Stimmen gegen den Ausl8nderhafJ.
Luchterhand Flugschrift 4. Hamburg:
Luchterhand, 1992.
Oguntoye, Katharina, May Opitz, and Dagmar
Schultz. Farbe Bekennen. Afro-deutsche Frauen
auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte. Berlin:
Orlanda, 1986. 2. ed. 1991.
Schweigen ist Schuld. Ein Lesebuch der
Verlagsinitiative gegen Gewalt und Fremdenhaf3.
Frankfurt: Borsenverein des deutschen
Buchhandels e.v., 1993 ISBN 3-492-04000-4
Senoca, Zafer. Atlas des tropischen
Deutschland. Essays. Berlin: Babel, 1993.
Submitted by: Barbara Mabee.
mabee@vela.acs.oakland.edu
New Titles from Orlanda Frauenverlag
Coming Due this Spring.
Ayim, May. Blues in Schwarz Weif3. Lyrikband.
ISBN 3-929823-23-3; hardcover; ca 29.80 OM
(To be published in March 95)
Budke, Petra, and Jutta Schulze.
Schriftstellerinnen in Berlin 1871 bis 1945. Ein
Lexikon zu Leben und Werk. Band 9 der Reihe
"Oer andere Blick. Frauenstudien in Wissenschaft
und Kunst."
ISBN 3-929823-22-5; 58.00 OM
(published in February 95)
In case you want to order books, Orlanda would
prefer that you order with your general bookstore
or book-import and not with the publishing house
directly.
Submitted by: Barbara Mennel.
bcm2@cornell.edu
NOTE:
Nancy Boerner of Indiana University Library
informs us that the September 1994 issue of the
journal "College & Research Libraries" (Volume
55, Number 5) contains an article by Sem C.
Sutter on "The Fall of the Bibliographic Wall:
Libraries and Archives in Unified Germany."
r
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