Facing Fascism and Confronting the Past
German Women Writers from Weimar to the Present
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Examines German women's literary and cultural representations of the Nazi era.
Description
Spanning almost the entire twentieth century, from the 1920s to the 1990s, this book gives voice to both Jewish and non-Jewish women writers from German-speaking countries who were silenced during the Nazi years. Discussions on gender, patriarchy, and fascism are brought to bear on the works of Nelly Sachs, Anna Seghers, Elisabeth Langgässer, Ingeborg Drewitz, Luise Rinser, Grete Weil, Christa Wolf, and others. The book also includes an autobiographical account of a Holocaust survivor's experience. In light of recent political events in Europe, this book is particularly relevant.
Contributors include Gisela Brinker-Gabler, Ruth Dinesen, Elke P. Frederiksen, Gertraud Gutzmann, Robert Holub, Ritta Jo Horsley, Ruth Kluger, Helga Kraft, Sara Lennox, Elke Liebs, Dagmar Lorenz, Elaine Martin, Richard McCormick, Renate Möhrmann, Monika Shafi, Guy Stern, and Margaret Ward.
Elke P. Frederiksen is Professor of German Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is the coeditor, with Elizabeth Ametsbichler, of Women Writers in German-Speaking Countries and is author of Women Writers of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: An Annotated Bio-Bibliographical Guide. Martha Kaarsberg Wallach is Professor of German and Chair of the Modern Language Department at Central Connecticut State University.
Reviews
"By dealing with the issues of representation, gender, and fascism and carefully analyzing their interrelationship with regards to well-known and hardly known attempts by women to deal with unprecedented experiences, the ensuing moral dilemmas, and the concomitant difficulties of expression/representation, this volume adds considerably to continuing and continuously necessary investigations into 'The Past. '" — Monatshefte
"This book brings together many different voices of women writers, who had radically different experiences with National Socialism, which is reflected in the diversity of their literary works. The editors document not only the complexity of experiences of women under National Socialism, but also the complex questions this era poses for scholars. The book presents the depth and range of scholarship in the field of women writers and fascism and acquaints the reader with many of the important feminist scholars working in this field. " — Marie-Luise Gaettens, Southern Methodist University
"This book focuses on an important and highly neglected area of research, and thus responds to a real need. It advances the discussion on the role of German women before, during, and after fascism, providing information and raising issues for further discussion. " — Sabine I. Golz, author of The Split Scene of Reading: Nietzsche/Derrida/Kafka/Bachmann