March 1985 Newsletter

WOMEN IN GERMAN

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MARCH 1985

The Coalition of Women in German, an allied organization of the MLA, invites students, teachers and all others interested in Feminism and German Studies to subscribe to the newsletter. See the last page of this issue for rates.

Women in German Steering Committee:

Ritta Jo Horsley, U. Mass., Boston (1981-84)

Almut R. Poole, Los Angeles (1981-84)

Jeannine Blackwell, Michigan State U. (1982-85)
   Political Action Committee

Barbara D. Wright, U. Conn., Storrs (1982-85)
   Political Action Committee

Sandra Frieden, U. Houston (1983-86)
   Fundraising Coordinator

Edith Waldstein, M.I.T. (1983-86)
   Conference Coordinator, 1984
   Coeditor (with Marianne Burkhard, U. Illinois), Women in German Yearbook (1982-  )

Dinah Dodds, Lewis and Clark Coll. (1984-87)
   Conference Coordinator, 1985

Sydna Weiss, Hamilton Coll. (1984-87)
   Textbook Review Committee

The Women in German Newsletter is published in March, August and November of each year. Send newsletter items to:

Susan L. Cocalis
Dept. of German—[redacted]
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003

Table of Contents

WIG Newsletter in Transition ... 1

WIG Projects ... 2

Aus Unserem Briefkasten ... 6

AATG/MLA 1984 ... 7

Calls for Papers ... 17

Conferences ... 20

Announcements ... 23

Books ... 27
   Reviews ... 27
   Recent Publications: Bibliography ... 30

Subscriptions/Membership Form ... 32

WOMEN IN GERMAN

Number 36
March 1985

The final — and most coveted — installment for this newsletter has just arrived from Ft. Wayne: Erin Clausen's artwork. She, at least, will continue to serve on the editorial staff of the WIG Newsletter even if Jeanette will be enjoying a long overdue and certainly well-earned respite from her editorial chores. It is hard to conceive of a newsletter produced without Jeanette — in fact, so hard that she ended up doing most of the groundwork for this issue. Page after page of material with comments scribbled on attached scraps of yellow paper began to arrive in Northampton. Then there were the more extensive directives scribbled on white paper. These were followed up by phone calls: did you do this or that? one has to go here or there and do this or that ... did you call so-and-so? no??? well, we did ... ad infinitum. Then the mailing list came. Then Erin's drawings. I felt reassured: Jeanette was still with us. I only wish she could stay with us but — alas — that is not to be. Thank you, Jeanette, on behalf of all of us in WIG for everything you have done over the past few years. It really has been service above and beyond the call of duty!

As soon as we get our act together, a collective of UMass graduate students and area faculty members will be involved in the production of future newsletters. The present issue will be a rather makeshift affair because of the transfer of materials and my belated awareness of what tasks still had to be assigned and done. Please bear with us for the time being.

Special thanks for this issue go to Colette van Kerckvoorde, Karin Obermeier, and Leslie Morris.                                                            

SLC

We've often talked about the problem of diversity in WIG and the need for various "voices." We graduate students are becoming an ever-growing, more active, and integrated part, yet we haven't articulated our needs as a group — we want to explore these needs and open up communication with each other to combat the all too-familiar sense of isolation in which we operate. We'd like the WIG newsletter to provide a forum for graduate students in Germanistik and Comp. Lit. to exchange information on our work and interests and to recognize each other's efforts. Any information, concerns, anecdotes, impressions, i. e. ANYTHING! would be very welcome.... Write to:

Leslie Morris/Karin Obermeier
C/0 of German Dept. at UMass, Amherst

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WOMEN IN GERMAN

Spring 1985

WOMEN IN GERMAN is a feminist coalition committed to promoting feminist scholarship and pedagogy in German literary, cultural, and language studies at all educational levels. WIG was formed in 1975 and is open to students and teachers alike, as well as to feminists working outside academe. An allied organization of the MLA, WIG has created a communication network and support system for our 350 members in the USA, Canada, and six other countries. We have worked closely with feminist germanists in the FRG in founding a sister organization there.

WIG has held an annual fall conference since 1976 and sponsors both literary and pedagogical sessions at the annual conventions of the AATG and MLA. Our sessions have consistently been among the best attended. WIG publishes three newsletters annually and a yearbook. Other publications include a collection of 50 course syllabi and a compendium of textbook reviews; an anthology of prose by contemporary women writers in translation is in the planning stages. German departments and academic journals have become aware of a large and vigilant feminist presence in the profession; our voices have been heard (and to some extent heeded) in textbook departments of major publishers. We have begun to integrate German women writers into the curriculum and have created new courses for studying women's writings in the context of faninist theory. We have supported and inspired research on women by our students and colleagues. We are com­mitted to helping women gain tenure and to raising our voices in protest when they are denied it unfairly. In short, we have fought sexism and validated the study of women.

Since 1980, we have invited a guest writer to our fall meetings: Margot Schroeder in 1960, Angelika Mechtel in 1981, Luise Rinser in 1982, Barbara Frischnuth in 1983, and limtraud Morgner and Helga Schütz in 1984. In addition, we have sponsored visits by Ingeborg Drewitz and Gisela Dischner to our MLA ses­sions. To become a member and subscribe to the newsletter, fill out and return the coupon with your check. Those who join at the supporting membership rate help us keep rates low for students and unemployed.

WIG PROJECTS

Textbook Reviews: The steering committee member now in charge of textbook reviews is Sydna (Bunny) Weiss at Hamilton College. Let her know your concerns in this area, and offer to help on the new textbook project.

*       *        *       *       *       *

Women in German!!

Please take 5 minutes to photocopy, then fill out the following questionnaire. Marianne Burkhard and I are trying to find out what women are doing In our profession, and think this form will help. Imagine it as everywoman’s guide to the Monatshefte survey. I hope the results will be published somewhere (possibly the WiG Yearbook or maybe Monatshefte). Give copies to all the women German teachers you know —‘high school, community college, etc. Encourage them to get it in by May 15. The more, the better. Feel free to add extra commentary and to critique the form (you know those pesky feminists: meckern, meckern, meckern).

Jeannine Blackwell
[redacted]
MSU
East Lansing, MI 4882

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Questionnaire on women in German
(Please make copies and give to your female colleagues)
Return to: Jeannine Blackwell, MSU, East Lansing, MI by May 15, 1985

1. Describe the institution you work in:
a. secondary school a. private
b. undergraduate degree-granting institution
d. business/professional sphere
   a. liberal art orientation
   b. technical/vocational

2. "Status" of your institution
   a. age
      1. 1-25 years old
      2. 26-100 years old
    b. sex distribution, students
      1. under 40% female
      2. 40-60% female
      3. over 60% female

   b. # of German majors (put # of minors in parentheses)

   c. German majors' main interest: rank from 1 (most) to 4
____ literature
____ German high culture (classics in art, music, architecture)
____ social history/ contemporary culture
____ vocational direction

   d. Most of our 3rd and 4th year students (check applicable categories):
_____ are German majors
_____ are in science/professional fields
_____ are lower caliber than the average student here
_____ could handle graduate study in German
_____ are women

3. Your job: What do you do for your dept. 

   a. that men of your rank do not do?
  
   b. that is instrumental in teaching innovation? (CAI, textbook innovation, A-V, teacher training, etc.)

   c. that leads to program diversification or curriculum innovation? (film, business German, internship organizing, etc.)

4. What other administrative units do you participate in, and how? (women's studies, schools of communications, film studies, etc.)

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5. What administrative functions do you have in addition to teaching and research? (coordinator or director of women's studies, affirmative action, chair or head of German section, programs abroad, honors, etc.)

6. Your "status"
   a. (present rank) ______
   b. (years in rank) ______
   c. temporary/permanent (circle)
   d. fulltime/parttime (circle)

   e. if non-permanent or non-tenure track, check the category that best explains your job:

1. 1. I wanted a temporary job
   2. the only job I could get nationwide was temporary
   3. I am limited geographically for family reasons, and want a temporary job
   4. I am limited geographically for family reasons, but want a tenure-track job
   5. My research has not been up to the standards of the job applicant pool
      a. because of family responsibilities
      b. because of excess teaching load/work load
      c. because I am not dedicated to research fulltime
      d. because I was out of the research mainstream
   6. Men get full time, women parttime
   7. Faculty discrimination in hiring (give year of hiring________ 
   8. Bad counseling in graduate school (give year and location: ____
   9. I just wasn't'good enough for serious scholarship
   10. I had other priorities and interests in my life
   11. My specialty is/was not in demand
       
       

   f. years at institution______________

The biggest problem with/asset of the teaching of German today is:

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 We salute . . .

Cyndi Lauper   Tina Turner   Pat benitar (sic!)

- a women of the year and mother of a child (another on the way).

great feminist!          46 year old great!

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AUS UNSEREM BRIEFKASTEN

Der Besuch von Irmtraud Morgner und Helga Schütz an Washington University in St. Louis (27. - 30. Oktober 1984)

Durch die langjährige Lehrtätigkeit unserer WIG-Schwester Pat Herminghouse im Bereich DDR-Literatur und besonders durch die Aktivitäten um das hier publizierte GDR-Bulletin war ein großes Interesse für die DDR-Schriftstellerinnen Irmtraud Morgner und Helga Schütz an Washington University vorhanden. Bei uns arbeiten mehrere Doktorandinnen über DDR-Schriftstellerinnen, u. a. über Irmtraud Morgner. Wir wollen unseren WIG-Schwestern, vor allem Karen Achberger, dafür danken; habt ihr den Besuch doch erst überhaupt möglich gemacht. Durch Beitritt zu WIG konnte unsere Deutschabteilung die beiden Schriftstellerinnen tatsächlich einladen. Der Besuch war ein Riesenerfolg und wurde zu einem der sicherlich interessantesten und unvergesslichsten Ereignisse, die bei uns an der Abteilung in den letzten Jahren stattgefunden haben.

Da die Schriftstellerinnen einen Besuch in St. Louis nur von Samstag bis Dienstagmorgen einplanen konnten, las Helga Schütz am Sonntagnachmittag aus Julia. Daran spann sich eine anregende Diskussion mit einem der DDR-Literatur aufgeschlossenen Publikum. Trotz des ungewöhnlichen Termins waren viele Zuhörer gekommen. Die den Nachmittag abschließende Filmvorführung Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (Regie: Egon Günther. Szenarium: Helga Schütz) vermittelte einen Eindruck in die vielseitige Schaffenskraft von Helga Schütz.

Am folgenden Nachmittag las Irmtraud Morgner. Wiederum war der Vortragsraum bis auf den letzten Platz voll. Morgner hatte das 79. Kapitel ("Die Heiratsschwindlerin - oder .Warum muß Barbara auf ihren Prozeß warten?") aus Amanda ausgewählt, das sie selbst als eine der "knalligen" Stellen im Roman bezeichnete. Sie schloß mit einem Kapitel des neuen und dritten Teils der Laura-Salman-Trilogie ab. Ihre zwingende Vortragsweise machte den hexisehen-feministischen Humor ihres Werkes zu einer sinnlichen Erfahrung; es gelang ihr, auch die Skeptiker um den Finger zu wickeln. Die Morgner-Fans fanden die in sie gesetzten Erwartungen erfüllt.

Der Besuch der Schriftstellerinnen war von zwei Parties umrahmt: am Samstagabend bei Dorle und Egon Schwarz und am Sonntagabend von einer Halloween-Party bei der Aachener Austauschstudentin Frauke Langguth. Hier konnten die beiden Frauen nur kurz bleiben, da sie die Gelegenheit nicht versäumen wollten, Formans Amadeus zu sehen. Nach dem gemeinsam verbrachten Sonntag — wir hatten ihnen Midtown gezeigt —, ergab es sich, daß wir noch recht viel zusammen unternahmen. Beide Frauen waren mit der Erwartung hierher gekommen, daß St. Louis das Zentrum des Blues sei. Doch die Zeit der Bluesbars im 'Gaslight Square' ist schon lange vorbei. Dank der Tips von Rob Leventhal konnten wir eine Blueskneipe ausfindig machen und unseren Gästen den Wunsch, authentischen Blues zu hören, am Montag­abend noch erfüllen und zwar im '1860 Saloon' im Soulard Viertel.

Bei dem ’Sack-lunch' mit der Redaktion des GDR-Bulletins wurden die beiden Schriftstellerinnen mit den Aufgaben und Arbeitsweisen des Kollektivs bekannt gemacht. Leider mußte der spontan gefaßte Entschluß, in die Max-Beckmann­Ausstellung zu gehen, ins Wasser fallen, da das Museum ausgerechnet an dem Tag geschlossen war.

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Es fiel uns schwer, von Helga Schütz und Irmtraud Morgner Abschied zu nehmen. Unvergeßlich bleiben die vielen Fahrten in Pats altem Ford-Stationwagen unter allen erdenklichen Wetterbedingungen (Regen, Nebel, Kälte sowie Mondschein) und mit Nina Simone Musik. Zum Schluß noch eine kleine Anekdote: Mit ihrem bestimmten Auftreten konnte Morgner sogar uns Amerikaerfahrenen davon über­zeugen, daß die Uhr zum Herbstzeitwechsel nicht vor, sondern nachgestellt werde. Obwohl wir nicht von Zweifeln frei waren, glaubten wir ihr. Als wir am nächsten Morgen zur verabredeten Zeit in ihrem Hotel auftauchten, waren wir zwei Stunden zu früh und standen als die leichtgläubig Verführten da. Das war sicherlich kein bewußter Eulenspiegeltrick.

Vielleicht, das ist unser Vorschlag, wäre es möglich, um 10. oder 15. Jubiläum irgendwo eine WIG-Sommerwerkstatt zu planen, zu der wir alle bisher von WIG eingeladenen Schriftstellerinnen wiederum zusammenbringen und eine Mammutfeier veranstalten: wenn wir gemeinsam davon träumen, wird es vielleicht Realität werden.

Mit schwesterlichen Grüßen!

Tineke Ritmeester, Magda Mueller und Hildegard Pietsch

AATG, MLA 1984

[image: 17. Das Weib lenkt den Lauf der Welt (Deutscher Holzschnitt des 16. Jahrhunderts)]

The summaries published here repre­sent only a very partial picture of the WIG sessions held at the AATG and MLA conventions in 1984.

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AATG - 1984

WOMEN AND PEACE

Moderators: Irmgard Hunt, Texas Tech U., Irmgard Taylor, SUNY/Cortland

The Women in German session at the AATG, Chicago, went very well. We had three excellent and very different presentations that held the interest of the audience. In fact, the audience grew as we went along. That had a lot to do with the early hour (our session was from 8:30 - 9:30). Edith Waldstein spoke first on "Bertha von Suttner and the European Peace Movement of the Early Twentieth Century." The emphasis, as she explained prior to her talk, was on Suttner's novel "Die Waffen Nieder!" and the characterization of the main figures . (If anyone wants to have an intense experience of déjà-vue I recommend reading this novel — now in paperback in the FRG by Knaur Verlag, DM 9,80 — because so many of the current peace movement thoughts were expressed by Suttner so long ago.) Sara Friedrichsmeyer then spoke on "The Diary of Käthe Kollwitz" and her attitude toward war. Tineke Ritmeester reported on a "Women and Peace" course she teaches and distributed her syllabus. She started and ended with two powerful poems, and explained her personal commitment to the cause of peace.

My impression was that the papers, or rather the entire session, was very well received. The attendance was as good or better than other sessions that Sunday. I heard no further negative comments on the topic of the session as such and believe it best not to make a fuss about the time slot. After all, many people were scheduled for Sunday. Herta Stephenson explained the late Sunday time slot for the WIG cinema session by the very late submission of the session proposal (way past the deadline). One way to ensure preferential treatment for time slots would be to have a WIG member on the AATG Planning Committee, or at least an ally. Do we have one? It would be worthwhile to take note of next year's committee members.

Irmgard Taylor
SUNY/Cortland

"From Revolutionary to Pacifist: The Diaries of Käthe Kollwitz"

In the decades since Käthe Kollwitz began to exhibit her graphic works, the appraisals they have elicited from art historians and other arbiters of taste have varied greatly, depending on the favor accorded the socially committed work of a woman artist. One constant in these vagaries of art appreciation, however, has been the recurring perception of Kollwitz as an artist with revolutionary impulses. In addition to her graphic art

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and sculpture, Kollwitz also left diaries, written between 1909 and 1943. In my presentation I assumed the literary merits of these diaries, and used them to examine this assessment of Kollwitz as a "revolutionary" artist. For if art historians seem to agree that the demand for the radical overthrow of existing social and political systems defines her work, a reading of her diaries challenges that consensus. The diaries not only put into perspective the revolutionary fervor which inspired some of her major works, but in chronicling her development, demonstrate what I suggested should be seen as Kollwitz's evolution from revolutionary to pacifist. In addition to discussing the link between that change and Kollwitz’s developing consciousness of herself as a woman and mother, I also stressed the connection between that particular awareness and the style of the journal entries, a style which corroborates recent claims for a female aesthetic. Kollwitz, as we all know, is worthy of close attention for her graphic works and sculpture. When the dimensions of her commitment to pacifism are recognized, she gains even more importance for our time, not only as an artist, but as a woman and diarist as well.

Sara Friedrichsmeyer
University of Cincinnati/Raymond Walters General and Technical College

"Reevaluating Teaching ’Women and Peace”’

I began my presentation with a reading of "I Am A Dangerous Woman" by Joan Cavanagh (in: Reweaving the Web of Life, ed. Pam McAllister, Philadelphia, 1982, p. 2). Feminist teaching is a form of feminist activism. To teach a course on "Women and Peace" based on the notion that the nersonal is the political and vice versa requires a shift in emphasis from conventional issues of war and peace to violence against women in all its aspects. Students must be encouraged to ask questions about war and peace from a feminist perspective and to acquire an ability to perceive these issues as they directly affect the lives of all women.

In the paper I talk about my experiences in the German shelter movement ("Frauen helfen Frauen") and of my allegiance to the European peace movement at the time when I began planning the course. Five years later, I see that violence against women is still on the increase (20% increase in rape in 1984 in St. Louis alone) and that the peace movement has failed in its prime objective: halting the European deployment of cruise missiles. This raises the question of whether we, as feminists, ought not to rethink our place within the peace movement, My paper (and the course) address the following proposition: if peace does have a better chance with women, that is because women are closer to the roots of war and NOT because

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they are closer to the source of life. Feminist teaching must remain committed to promoting social change for women.

Tineke Ritmeester
Washington U/St. Louis

[image: 2. Mann schlägt Frau. (Deutschland, 1456)

WOMEN AND GERMAN FILM

Moderator: Barbara Hyams, University of Tulsa

"Women in Weimar Cinema"

The purpose of my presentation was to introduce a variety of approaches for teaching courses on Women in Weimar Cinema and to provide information about available literature and films. (I would be happy to supply bibliographical information and film lists to anyone interested in teaching such a course.) The approaches included a more traditional concentration on plot analyses of films in which central female figures appear either as virgins or vamps, the investigation of cinematic techniques (shot composition and montage) in films that promote a patriarchal or male gaze, and the study of contributions by women in all branches of the cinematic institution during the Weimar Era. I suggested that, regardless of the focal point, instructors should challenge their students to perceive how aspects of standard commercial film production (including the star system and film genres), the commercial and political interests of the institution's leading executives and producers, the psychological instability of the lower middle class, and the status of the women's movement contributed to the production of female stereotypes in Weimar cinema.

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Although the study of contributions by women in Weimar cinema could be very rewarding, it is also the most difficult topic to integrate into a film course today. In addition to famous actresses such as Marlene Dietrich, Lilian Harvey, and Henny Porten, we can see how female producers (Asta Nielson and Henny Porten), directors (Leontine Sagan, Marie Harder, and Leni Riefensthal), scriptwriters (Thea von Harbou), and critics (Lotte Eisner, Lilli Kaufmann, Alice Simmel, and Trude Sand) contributed significantly to the development of Weimar cinema. Except for the films to which they contributed and, in the case of the critics, the reviews, very few primary and secondary sources are available. I believe that more attention should be paid to the work of these and other women as the interest in feminist film studies expands.

The discussion following the session on Women and Film centered on the portrayal of female figures in the films of the Third Reich. The discussion raised many questions and provided few conclusive answers. It might be worthwhile to organize a session on the topic for a WIG, AATG, or MLA convention in the future.

Bruce A. Murray
University of Michigan

[image: The Blue angel: Marlene Dietrich as Lola Lola - provocative legs and an over-all impassivity.]

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"Introducing Students to a New Way of Viewing: Teaching Three Feminist Films from the New German Cinema"

This paper was an evaluation of my recent experience introducing students to three German feminist films as part of a fourth-year university course on the New German Cinema. Rather than submerge these three films into the general themes of the course, I treated them as central works that offer a new way of viewing. While this was only one segment of a course which dealt with fourteen contemporary German films, it elicited the liveliest discussion: the introduction of a feminist political stance offered students a new way of thinking about film, contemporary German society, and politics.

Helma Sanders-Brahms' Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1978), Margarethe von Trotta's Die bleierne Zeit (1981), and Heike Sander's Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit: REDUPERS (1977) were each shown twice during the course of the semester. Students were to have prepared themselves for the showings by reading articles in English and/or German. They were also provided with a list of questions to consider while viewing the films. These questions were designed to further a feminist approach and centered particularly on women’s role in history, women as narrators and their narrative perspective, the act of recognizing a film's political importance, the meaning of the titles, and the role of men and children in it. Ultimately students had to consider whether they had seen anything in the films which they had not seen before.

Our general conclusions may be summarized as follows: all three films emphasized the limited, subjective nature of historical accounts and all attempted to propose a feminist alternative to conventional histories. The latter embraces what von Trotta calls the "Blick nach innen" and the "Blick nach außen." While the subject of the films might be women and women's issues, they were essentially defined by woman as narrator, woman as possessor of the gaze.

Lynne Tatlock Washington U/St. Louis

[image: 57. The Mothers K. Kollwitz]

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MLA -1984

(RE)MAKING MYTH IN GERMAN WOMEN'S WRITING Moderator: Angelika Bammer, Vanderbilt University

"Allusions to Daedalus and Icarus in recent GDR art"

An examination of six generically different GDR artworks, all of which contain explicit or implicit allusions to one or both figures of the Greek legend, raises, expecially because of geo­sociopolitical restrictions in the GDR, more questions than it answers. Readings of Biermann's "Ballade vom Preußischen Ikarus," Wolfgang Mattheuer's "Ikarus" painting, Bettina Wegner's "Ikarus" song for Klaus Schlesinger's film of that title, Monika Maron's novel Flugasche, Helga Schubert's prose poem "Himmel," and Christa Wolf's Voraussetzungen einer Erzählung nonetheless permit some preliminary speculations regarding the artists' assumptions of predetermined mythical concepts and the manner in which they rely (or not) on these assumptions. These hypotheses emerged from the reading: 1) that Daedalus and Icarus function equally as referents — and sometimes the reference is confusing (or confused); 2) that men are more likely than women to assume the existence of what Barthes calls "metalanguage," and anticipate reception in terms of that assumption; and 3) that women work either with attempted revision of the direct allusion or with obscure reference.

Biermann and Mathheuer depend on imagistic representation, employ myth as ready-made language, and select from it that which serves their own purposes, thus neglecting the far-reaching sub-strata of signification suggested by the allusion. Wegner's Icarus is a child, oppressed by society’s whims and expelled from childhood by its realities. Maron deals as well with a protagonist oppressed by her everyday world of bureaucratic immobility. Schubert locates an unnamed "I" on the uneasy horizon between individuality and social conformity. Maron and Schubert conflate Daedalus and Icarus in a perhaps subconscious narrative action that suggests the fundamental inappropriateness of the familiar myth for women.
These authors are involved in a "remaking," in an insistence on re-vision motivated not by conscious effort, but by the very fact of gender.

Christa Wolf, finally, would have us return to the origins of the legend and question the verities of its initial syntax in order to discover how the original reading of myth has predetermined and predefined the welfare of western civilization, and especially the female component of that civilization.

Schubert, Maron, and Wolf permit resonances not found in the other works through their use of non-restrictive allusion and through the identification of women with a figure that seems to conflate the two legendary ones.

Marilyn Sibley Fries
Yale University

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APPROPRIATING FAUST               .
Moderator: Konstanze Bäumer, Syracuse University

"Goethe’s Faust: The Feminine in Creativity"

In my talk I analyzed the role of the feminine within the creative process, specifically in the Mothers’ scene but with implications for the Faust drama as a whole. I found that the realm of the Mothers is most accurately characterized not by the solitude traditionally emphasized, but rather by boundlessness. Faust must enter the void of the unfamiliar and unknown ("das Nichts") in order to discover endless possibility and potentiality ("das All").
He must shed the expectations and preconceived patterns of perception which limit new experience and he must immerse himself in an elemental flux which defies any attempt at rational comprehension. The feminine realm is perceived as mystery and it promises everything lacking in Faust's overly scientific and categorized masculine world. Above all, it promises the mystery of creation. Faust's entire journey can be seen as a movement toward this ideal feminine realm, for creativity depends upon the union of the masculine and the feminine.

Initially it would appear that the feminine plays an essential and positive role in the creative act. Upon closer examination, however, we find that the union is very out of balance. The imbalance is most visible in the activity and aggression of Faust as opposed to the passivity and sacrifice of the feminine throughout the drama. The source of woman's passivity lies in Goethe's idealization of her as mother, for this means that her creative contribution is centered in the womb. In the creative union of the feminine and the masculine, woman provides the matter and man the mind; the feminine realm represents a potential which must first be realized by the masculine. Woman then, I concluded, is necessary in Goethe's Faust only for man to create. Her own creativity remains on a biological and merely symbolic level.

Linda Lindsay
Allegheny College

[image: Mephistopheles führt Faust die Helena zu. Federzeichnung von Adrian Mathan um 1642]

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REEVALUATING INGEBORG BACHMANN’S PROSE Moderator: Sara Lennox, UMass/Amherst

Karen Achberger again organized this MLA special session on Ingeborg Bachmann and was to serve as its chair. After the accident I agreed to chair the session as well as respond to the papers. Karen had chosen three papers that fit together extremely well and that particularly stressed the various political dimensions of Bachmann's writing. In my response I commented that these papers dealt with the three directions of Bachmann criticism, that seem to me most important at this point: French feminist readings of her work with respect to its treatment of gender, readings of her work which stress its social criticism, and readings that investigate her work in the context of the Austrian literary tradition. I concluded my comments by maintaining that my own work on Bachmann had led me to believe that an understanding of her work was best sought at the intersection of the issues these three papers raise; her love for a vanished Austrian past; her dismay at an imperialist present, which the vantage point of a Vienna now outside of history allows her to observe clearly; and her horror at the state of relationships between men and women.

Sara Lennox
UMass/Amherst

"The Authority of Language in Franza and Malina"

Recent movements such as feminism, poststructuralism and hermeneutics have done much to undermine the traditional literary perspectives which characterized the initial reception of Bachmann's writing.
Whereas Bachmann was once praised or rebuked as a lyrical subjectivist, the tendency of current criticism is to highlight the socio-political aspects of her work. The danger of this trend is, however, that traditional categories are not easily overcome. This critical shift risks re-instating orthodox concepts of social relevance which are inadequate for a discussion of Bachmann's thinking. While her prose reflects a form of cultural criticism, it is cultural criticism in a "new key." Bachmann's primary concern is the "linguistic dimension" of interpersonal and socio-political domination. In both Malina and in Franza, the aggressive destruction of the female narrator is primarily an assault on her capacity to

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write and speak. By first interpreting the psychoanalytical model presented by Jordan’s relationship to Franza, the reader gains an understanding of how his reordering of Franza’s words in effect destroys her memories, or to use Bachmann's metaphor, "assaults her narration." The same phenomenon occurs in Malina where the tyrannical father is wantonly contemptuous of women and threatens the Ich-figure's capacity to speak. In Malina Bachmann personifies a dominant perspective in Western thought,« one that precludes the existence of the feminine principle in the world. Here, as elsewhere in Bachmann's work, far-reaching socio-political aspects of her critique can be found. For Bachmann, as for other twentieth-century thinkers, the European tradition is characterized by the domination of the language of the Other.

Judith Harris Frick
U Illinois/Urbana-Champaign

"Rereading 'Undine geht’: Ingeborg Bachmann and Feminist Theory"

My paper attempted to show how "Undine geht," written in the late 1950's, anticipates ideas of French feminists such as Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray by using their prescription for feminine writing as a framework for a reading of the story. In opposing the phallologocentrism of dominant western discourse, Cixous, Irigaray, and others have called for a new "écriture féminine," which may be described as having three objectives: to disclose and analyze the forms of women's repression in the male imaginary; to disrupt the logocentric order of male discourse; and to create a new feminine imaginary based on women's primary experience of themselves, their bodies, and their sexuality. Bachmann's text exposes and decenters myths of the feminine that have been a fundamental part of western culture. In the figure of the mermaid the story demonstrates the continuing force of associations of the feminine with nature, the non-human, the inarticulate unconscious, with a silence broken only by the seductive siren-call by which she lures men away from their place in the order of civilization, work, religion, the family. This "feminine principle" is a cultural construct, called into being by men as "the Other." Like the later theorists, Bachmann reverses the usual valuation of the dominant order and gives the feminine principle a positive value as the subverter of a corrupt reality. Finally, Undine's refusal to continue this role represents an effort to break out of this culturally assigned mythic identity. "Undine geht" also anticipates feminist prescriptions for disrupting logocentric discourse by formal qualities of plurality, circularity, and contradiction. The linear change of Undine's proclaimed departure contrasts with the circularity of her never-ending call and seduction. Men and male culture are presented both as monstrous and as godlike. The figures of Hans and Undine have multiple meanings. Undine is variously female subject, culturally-constructed feminine principle, and voice of the poet. She finally appears to merge with her opposites, the male, the "du" of the lover and the reader. Through these

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plural and merging identities "Undine geht" presents a multi-faceted inscription of female experience, "was sich nicht festlegen läßt."

Despite its striking anticipation of contemporary feminist ideas and forms, Bachmann's text also demonstrates the difficulty of a woman attempting to challenge and re-vision the oppressive old order from a position still within it. Although she is conscious and critical of the repressive dynamics inherent in a dualist culture, Undine is herself still enthralled by those very categories and remains trapped in the fundamental dichotomy. Yet in this respect too, she shows a similarity with some recent feminist theory, which also runs the risk of perpetuating the very dualism and essentialism that it seeks to criticize.

Joey Horsley
UMass/Boston

CALLS FOR PAPERS

WIG 1985

TENTH ANNUAL

WOMEN IN GERMAN CONFERENCE

October 24-27, 1985 Portland, Oregon

Guest: LUISE F. PUSCH

Luise F. Pusch, author of Das Deutsche als Männersprache (Suhrkamp 1984), is one of the most original and prolific writers on feminism, linguistics, and the German language today. She will be present during the entire conference, and will speak on Saturday evening, October 26.

Contributions are invited for the following conference sessions:

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1. Opening session, Thursday evening, October 24

WOMEN IN GERMAN: WOHER, WOHIN?

For our opening session we wish to solicit from those who were WIG members in the beginning years a short description of their experiences, expectations and needs at the time WIG was founded, why they chose to become members, what questions were important for them then in the profession and in their personal lives, and what hopes they had for WIG. Your description can take any form you wish; the co-chairs will put the responses together and decide on the form most appropriate for their presentation. Please send a copy each to:

Sigrid Brauner [redacted] and Sara Lennox [redacted]

2. Film and film pedagogy, Friday morning, October 25

DEUTSCHE FILMEMACHERINNEM UND DER NEUE DEUTSCHE FILM

We are seeking proposals for 10-minute informal presentations on German women filmmakers, new German cinema, and film pedagogy, including the use of feature films in the foreign language classroom and how to teach about film in high school and college. We would welcome slide presentations, models of teaching units, handouts, etc. Either English or German may be used, but please plan to prepare an abstract for the conference in the alternate language. Send a one-page abstract by May I5, 1985 to each of the following:

Nancy J. Brown [redacted]           

Sandy Frieden
German Department
Univ. of Houston
Houston, TX 77004

Viebeke Keith
[redacted]

[image: 51. MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM: The headmistress, a feminine Frederick the Great]

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CALLS FOR PAPERS     

WIG 1985, continued

3. Feminist theory, Friday afternoon, October 25

RECENT TRENDS IN FEMINIST THEORY AND CRITICISM

The goal of this panel is to broaden our understanding of current discussions and recent trends in feminist theory. We would like to invite papers from Women's Studies and other languages as well as German, and we especially encourage contri­butions dealing with lesbian/feminist perspectives. Comparative, historical or cross-lingual approaches or possible application of work in other areas to German studies will be very welcome. Proposals by June 1, 1985 to:

Dorothy Rosenberg
Modern Foreign Languages
Colby College Waterville, ME 04901

and

Patsy Baudoin

4. Filmvorstellung und Diskussion, Friday evening, October 25

Gesucht: a) zwei Diskussionsleiterinnen zum Thema Frauen, Film, Feminismus usw.; und b) Filmvorschläge. Resumöe (von etwa 250 Worten), Vorschläge, Anfragen an:

Jeannine Blackwell
German, [redacted]
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824

5. Feminism and language/linguistics, Saturday morning, October 26

AUF DER SUCHE NACH EINER FRAUENFREUNDLICHEN SPRACHE

In this session we would like to examine: a) what effects the work of feminist linguistics has had/could have on both theoretical and applied linguistics; b) how insights from feminist linguistics can be employed in literary criticism; c) in what ways the German language has changed/is changing in response to conscious­ness-raising efforts by feminists; and d) how we can integrate any or all of the above into our teaching, making both the language and the subject matter more frauenfreundlich. We envision a program with SHORT (10 minute) presentations followed by a workshop period during which all participants will work in small groups on developing and/or rehearsing strategies for implementing the ideas presented into our own work. Send a two-page abstract by May IS, 1985 to both:

Charlotte Armster
German Department
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg, PA 17325
[redacted]

Jeanette Clausen
Dept. of Modern Foreign Langs.
Indiana U.-Purdue U.
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
[redacted]

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CONFERENCES

NORTHEAST WIG
The WIG-Amherst collective is planning an informal "get-together" the weekend of June 8-9. Since many of us won’t be able to make it to Portland in October, we’d like to arrange a mini-conference in Amherst. Proposed sessions: informal discussions of works in progress/research; continuation of issues brought up last October; graduate student concerns. We would particularly like to welcome grad, students. Housing will be provided by local WIG members. Further info, to follow. For more info, contact Leslie Morris & Karin Obermeier, C/o German Dept., UMass/Amherst 01003.

GDR SYMPOSIUM
The 1985 Symposium will be on the theme of "The GDR Today - 40 Years After the End of WWII." One of the panels will address the issue of "Changing Patterns of Male and Female Identity" and is conceived as an interdisciplinary seminar with papers on social and political issues and on the relection of this question in literature and culture in general. June 21-28, 1985/ World Fellowship Center, Conway, NH.

[image: Teaching]

SOCIETY FOR CINEMA STUDIES
The 1985 Society for Cinema Studies Conference will include a panel entitled "Women in Film in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland,” which will examine the work of women filmmakers, feminist film criticism, and the impact of film schools, funding and distribution systems on women in the BRD. Comparisons to the situation for women filmmakers and for feminist film criticism in the USA will be encouraged. In order to participate in the SCS conference it is necessary to become a member ($30 per year). For further information contact: Ellen Seiter, Telecommunication and Film Studies, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.

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[drawing: coffee]

A conference on the topic: "FEMINIST STUDIES: RECONSTITUTING KNOWLEDGE” is being sponsored by the Women's Studies Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Center for Twentieth Century Studies at UW-Milwaukee from April 24-26, 1985. For further information contact:
Conference Coordinator
Center for Twentieth Century Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
[redacted]
Milwaukee, WI 53201 [redacted]

The sixth meeting of Women Historians will take place in Bonn, FRG from May 29-31, 1985. Anyone interested should contact
Women's Studies Research Group
Universität Bonn
c/o Hildegard Knitterscheidt
Peter-Ruster-Str. 7
53 Bonn 1
FRG

Die dritte Tagung von Frauen in der Literaturwissenschaft findet im Frühjahr 1986 in Hamburg statt.

The Seventh Congress of the Internationale Vereinigung für Germanische Sprachen und Literatur­wissenschaft (IVG) will be held from August 25-31 in Göttingen, FRG. There will be a section there on "FRAUENSPRACHE-FRAUENLITERATUR?" which will be chaired by Marianne Burkhard (USA), Sigrid Schmid (Austria), and Inge Stephan (FRG).

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Eine Gruppe von filmbegeisterten Feministinnen plant für den Herbst 198h ein FRAUENFILMFESTIVAL in Ruhrgebiet. Gesucht werden noch Frauen die bei der Planung und Durchführung nitmachen. Es wäre gut, wenn sie etwas Ahnung vom Medium Film hätten. Da demnächst die Konzeption erarbeitet werden soll, wäre es sinnvoll, wenn sich die Interessantinnen möglichst schnell melden. Es finden regelmäßige Treffen alle 3 Wochen statt. Kontaktadresse: Jutta oder Barbara beim aktuellen forum, [redacted] (Aus: Emma 9/84)

NWSA 1985
The annual NWSA Conference will be held at the University of Washington/ Seattle from June 19-23.

NWSA 1986 - at U. Illinois
The 1986 annual convention of the National Women's Studies Association will take place in June at the University of Illinois, Urbana. The program planning committee for 1986 is being co-chaired by WIG member Marianne Burkhard. She urges Wiggies to start planning now for possible panels, workshops or papers on German feminism/the German women's movements; women and German literature/literary criticism/language etc. ; German women in academe; women's lives in the various German-speaking countries, and so on. We should think about what we want member's of the NWSA to know about German Studies and Women's Studies, and then assemble panels, organize sections, or whatever is needed to present that information. Program time slots will be two hours long. If you have a good idea for a paper but don't feel up to organizing a panel or work shop, contact Marianne anyway— she may be able to put you in touch with others willing to work with you. WIG members in the great midwest, are you listening? Marianne Burkhard, Dept. of German, 3072 Foreign Languages Bldg, 707 S. Mathews, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801.

[image: 15 Christine de Pisan leads the way to the 'Cité des Dames’

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

BERG WOMEN'S SERIES

The series will cover women who, from any period and from any part of the world, have made a signif­icant contribution to the sum total of human knowledge: novelists and mathematicians; poets and scientists; travellers and poli­ticians; artists ... Each volume will be devoted to one woman and will deal with three aspects of her life — its social, historical and geographical background; a short biography; an assessment of her achievement. A bibliography should be included. The books will appear in paperback and will have a length of some 40,000 words. There will be scope for a limited number of illustrations. They will be directed at the sixth-form or first-year university student, as well as the general reader, and will present a preliminary overall picture of the character concerned, they will not, therefore, be highly technical or pre-suppose a great deal of specialist knowledge. Would intending authors please contact Miriam Kochan, who will be happy to discuss their project with them:
Miriam Kochan,General Editor
[redacted]

BROSCHÜRE "FRAUENARCHIVE UND -BIBLIOTHEKEN"

Karin Schatzberg gibt in ihrer gerade erschienenen Broschüre ’’Frauenarchive und -bibliotheken" einen Überblick über Frauen bzw. -dokumentationszentren in Westdeutschland, Berlin, einigen west­europäischen Ländern (Italien, Niederlande, Österreich). Zur Einführung in die Thematik sind der Darstellung der einzelnen Einrichtungen Ausführungen zur Aus- und Weiterbildung von Frauen und zu den Prinzipien feministischer Bildungsarbeit und ihrer Rahmenbedingungen vorangestellt. Sie hat — soweit die Material­lage es zuließ — für jede Institution ein Profil erstellt, in dem

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die Entstehungsgeschichte, die organisatorische und inhaltliche Konzeption und — soweit vorhanden — die zugehörigen Publikationen vorgestellt wurden. Die Profile wurden anhand von Informations­blättern der jeweiligen Einrichtung, schriftlichen und mündlichen Interviews mit den dort arbeitenden Frauen und sonstigen Materialien zusaranengestellt. Im Anhang findet sich ein komplettes Adressen­verzeichnis der in- und ausländischen Einrichtungen und eine tabellarische Übersicht. Bestellen kann man die Broschüre durch Überweisung von DM 6,— auf das Postgirokonto 567211-209 Hamburg von Karin Schatzberg, Stichwort "Sonderkonto". Adressenangabe bitte nicht vergessen.

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS -- THE EUROPEAN WOMEN WRITERS SERIES

The University of Nebraska Press announces a new series, European Women Writers. This series will encourage and publish translations of major works by European women. The Press plans to begin pub­lishing series titles in 1987 and to publish up to four books each year. All genres will be considered though preference will be given to booklength prose fiction. Each volume will include an introduction, select bibliography, and notes where appropriate.
An editorial board of four scholars, all with translation experience, will direct the series. It is hoped that the series will permit American readers greatly increased access to and understanding of European women and their literature. Though studies about European women writers will not constitute part of the series, the Press will welcome proposals which may serve to augment the aims of the series. The series will concentrate on twentieth-century works originally published in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, but proposals for translations of works from other languages will be welcome. Please send queries and proposals to W. G. Regier, Editor-in-Chief, University of Nebraska Press, 318 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0520.

Marilyn Schuster and Susan Van Dyne, "Placing Women in the Liberal Arts: Stages of Curriculum Transformation," Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 54, No. 4 (November 1984), pp. 413-28.

This article provides excellent arguments as well as statistical documentation for integrating material on women and minorities into the traditional curriculum. In it the authors propose a paradigm describing how teachers and students experience the process of curricular change and suggest various strategies for implementing the stages of such a paradigm for change.

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HAGEMANN-WHITE NAMED WOMEN'S STUDIES PROF AT FREE UNIVERSITY

A chair for women's studies has been established at the Free University of West Berlin, the city’s commissioner for Women's Affairs, Carola von Braun, announced recently. To fill it, Berlin Senator for Research Wilhelm Kewenig named Carol Hagemann-White,Professor of Political Science/Women's Studies. A native of New Jersey, Professor Hagemann-White received her doctorate from the Free University and has taught there and at the University of Gießen. The appointment followed a public discussion within and outside the university, including accusations of discrimination against women when Kewenig initially opposed the creation of the part-time professorship. Kewenig had argued that the job description provided by the university's political science department appeared "too narrow" to merit creating the position. — In the meantime two members of the department, Professors Wolf Dieter Narr and Peter Grottian, each agreed to relinquish one third of their professorships for the next five years in order to make the women's studies position possible.

This Week in Germany —
February 15, 1985

[image]

FRAUENSTUDIUM

"Kandidaten, sagen Sie mir, was fällt Ihnen an der Patientin auf?" — "Daß das Mensch einen seidenen Unterrock anhat."

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Frauen in der Literaturwissenschaft

(Herausgeberinnen: Renate Berger, Inge Stephan, Sigrid Weigel - Hamburg)

Rundbrief 4 * * * November 1984

[image]

Rundbriefabonnement
Hiermit bestelle ich den viermal jährlich erscheinenden Rundbrief "Frauen in der Literaturwissenschaft".

Name: .....

Adresse: .....

Telefon: .....

Ich habe den Betrag von DM .... (DM 20,— für Studentinnen und Ar­beitslose, DM 50,— und mehr für Berufstätige) auf das Konto Renate Berger, Stichwort "Rundbrief", Hamburger Sparkasse, BLZ 20050550, Kontonummer 1258/446 577 überwiesen.

...
(Unterschrift)

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BOOKS

LESBIAN ETHICS, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1984). Published three tines a year. Individual subscriptions $12 for 3 issues, 14 international. Sample copy $5 ($6 international). LE Publications, [redacted] Venice, CA, 90294.

The editor of this new journal, Jeanette Silveira, states that the idea for Lesbian Ethics grew out of her conviction that the society Lesbians are creating ’’is the first one in which ethics have been possible.” Her approach is refreshingly straightforward: "I see ethics in two ways: as learning fron experience, and as saying what we want." (p.5) —What, I wonder, could be more necessary for feminism and feminist studies at this point in time?
The first article in the volume, Julia Penelope's "The Mystery of Lesbians: I," minces no words about either of the above points. Penelope's experiences in the Women's Liberation Movement have taught her not to call herself a "feminist," or even a "lesbian-feminist," but rather to insist on a radically Separatist position. In her view, "the WIM has lost its early enthusiasm and the force of conviction has been drained from its rhetoric, which now echoes the bland, sluggish liberalism of the Democratic Party in the US." (p.23) Depending on your own politics, you may be angered or elated by Penelope's arguments, but either way I think you'll find them stimulating and relevant to vhat’s happening in feminist circles today. I, for one, am looking forward to part II of the article, in which Penelope promises to discuss distortions and confusions which she believes have helped defuse feminist radicalism and, along the way, she will answer the non-question«"can heterophobia be cured?"
The remainder of the issue is, in my opinion, something of a mixed bag. Jeanette Silveira’s article "Why Men Oppress Women" is, in the author's words, "materialist in spirit and even Marxist in method," although the conclusions "sure quite opposed to those of current Marxists." (p.3b) True enough. She argues that the technology to produce test-tube babies, although fraught with dangers, could be "a means of reproducing the species without oppressing one half or the other of it." (p.52) Barbara Macdonald's short article "A Call for an End to Ageism in Lesbian and Gay Services" is forceful and eloquent. Everyone planning to be an old woman some day should also read Macdonald's book, coauthored with Cynthia Rich, Look Me in the Eye? Old Women, Aging and Ageism (Spinsters, Ink. 803 De Haro St., San Francisco, CA 9^*107). In ^riRule Making," Jane Rule explores the necessity of rules for ourselves: "Rules made to defend ourselves against those who disapprove of us are suicide weapons ..." (p.66)
I found the contribution by Karen Fite and Nikola Trurabo, "Betrayals. Among Women: Barriers to a Common Language," at least as interesting for its form as for its content. The two authors write as "we," but shift to "I(K)" and "l(N)" when relating an individual, personal

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experience. Thus, an individual and a ’’collective’' first-person voice can emerge simultaneously. The authors state that in naming experiences of betrayal by their mothers and other women, they do not mean to blame the victim: "We, as women, are not innocent of the betrayals we commit, but our ignorance of what’s going on and why does rob us of the power to act otherwise.” (p.72) I found it difficult to keep their disclaimer in mind while reading and felt very un-affirmed as a mother, daughter, and friend of women by the end of the article. The volume concludes with a short essay, "Notes on the Meaning of Life" by Joyce Trebilcot, in which she analyzes the "ethic of experience" and the "ethic of achievement" as based respectively on male orgasm and the fathering of offspring.
In all, Lesbian Ethics Vol. 1, No.1 is a welcome addition to the still all too short list of journals where we can read about ourselves, in language that does not obfuscate or mystify but, for the most part, clarifies. I recommend it.

-- Jeanette Clausen
Indiana U.-Purdue U., Fort Wayne

AUFBAU FRIDAY, February 15, 1985

Deutsche Frauenliteratur aus New York
Dagmar Stern und Lola Gruenthal (Hrsg.). "Frauenfahrplan 1". Verlag: Starlight Press, New York. Zu beziehen durch: M. Goldschneider; P.O. Box 2131; New York, N.Y. 10009. 113 Seiten. Geheftet. $5,00 zuzüglich Porto.
     Unter dem Titel Frauenfahrplan hat sich eine neue Anthologie bzw. Zeitschrift vorgestellt mit deutschen Texten von Frauen aus dem New Yorker Raum, die der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Women in German angehören und einmal im Monat im New Yorker Goethe House zusammentreffen. Unterscheidlich wie Alter und Herkunft der Mitarbeiterinnen sind Qualität, Schreibintention und Genre der versammelten Werkproben. Gemeinsamer Nenner des Hefts ist offenbar die Geschlechtszugehörigkeit der Verfasserinnen. Die neuere feministische Literaturtheorie hat seit Virginia Woolfs Manifest A Room of One's Own (1928) diesen ansonsten völlig irrelevanten Aspekt zum ausschlaggebenden Kriterium literarischer Beurteilung und Arbeitsweise erhoben.
     Die im Frauenfahrplan enthaltenen Texte lassen sich einteilen in Lyrik und Prosa, diese wiederum splittert sich der Form nach auf in Kurzgeschichte, Romanauszug, Brief, Tagebuchaufzeichnung. Gemeinsam ist diesen Werkbeispielen der Charakter des Autobiographischen, des persönlichen Bekenntnisses und der Selbstbetrachtung. Am gelungensten erscheint die Kurzprosa, währedn der Lyrik häufig noch der Schein des amateurhaften Anfängerversuchs anhaftet.
     Am faszinierendsten an dieser Präsentation sind jedoch nicht so sehr die formalen Eigenschaften, sondern eher die Haltung (etwa Ironie, Humor), aus der diese Selbstreflexionen und Erlebnisberichte geschrieben sind. Das macht die Stärke dieses Sammelbands aus, dem man noch manche Fortsetzung wünschen darf.
g.n.

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The following bibliographical "review" appeared in CHOICE (Jan '85) describing German Feminism; Readings in Politics and Literature, ed. Edith Hoshino Altbach, Jeanette Clausen, Dagmar Schultz, and Naomi Stephan (SUNY Press, 1984):

GERMAN FEMINISM: readings in politics and literature, ed. Edith Heshino Altbach et al. State University of New York Press, 1984. 389p index 83-17849. 39.50 ISBN 9-8739S-840-3; 12.95 pa ISBN 8-87395-841-1. CIP

Two fine editorial introductions and a closing “Critical Outlook” frame and provide cultural setting for $4 translations that will acquaint US readers with an impressive range of German feminist authors. Excerpts chosen are carefully arranged to display the fiction, autobiography, journalism, and scholarship characteristic of the contem­porary German women’s movement, beginning with the late 1960s and the Paragraph 218 campaign of 1971. Each piece carries a brief headnote and an endnote identifying the German original. A biographical dictionary of editors and contributors is ap­pended. Among these authors, only Alice Schwarzer (founder and editor of the monthly Emma) and East German novelist Christa Wolf are likely to be already known to many US readers. That this excellent German counterpart to New French Femi­nisms, ed. by Elaine Marks and Isabelle de Courtivron (CH, May ’80), has been in search of a publisher since 1978 (and that no rival has been published meanwhile) can only lend credibility to claims of suppression of women’s writing. The editors’ persist­ence and the SUNY Press’s decision to publish deserve thanks—and orders—from libraries at all levels serving students of German literature, German history and society, and women's issues: virtually every public and ail academic libraries.—V. Clark, CHOICE

Liselotte Gumpel (Univ. of Minnesota/Morris) has a new book coming out soon in the Indiana University Press's "Advances in Semiotics Series". The pre-publication announcement describes it as follows:

Metaphor Reexamined: A Non-Arisotelian Perspective

Breaking away from the traditional "neo-Aristotelian" view of metaphor, this study offers a new, "non-Aristotelian" approach based on the phenomenological semantics of Roman Ingarden and the semiotics of Charles S. Peirce. The author seeks to grasp the meaning of metaphor through an exhaustive exploration of meaning in language, from its acquisition by young speakers to its repeated origination in sound when spoken and in the visual sign when written. She identifies the fundamental semantic operations that differentiate literal from literary use of language. Next, metaphor is examined in all of its semantic idiosyncrasies. Gumpel's theory culminates in the development of a functional or structural metaphor that can neither disappear nor "die." Applying the theory, Gumpel presents several textual analyses, relating the categories of argument, dicent, and rheme to the use of metaphor by Brecht, Dickinson, and Celan. A final section provides an incisive critique of theories of metaphor from Aristotle to the present. An important intellectual accomplishment, MR yields original insights and supplies a mine of information for scholars in the philosophy of language, literary theory, semiotics, and linguistics.

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RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Weiblichkeit oder Feminismus? Beiträge zur interdisziplinären Frauentagung in Konstanz 1983, ed. Claudie Opitz, Weingarten: Opitz, 1984.

Verband der Filmarbeiterinnen, Eds., Frauen-Film-Handbuch: Lexikon aller Filmemacherinnen und ihrer Filme in der BRD und West Berlin seit 1945. Berlin, 1984. DM 74.

Christine Buci-Glucksmann, Walter Benjamin und die Utopie des Weiblichen. Reinbek, 1984.

Luise F. Pusch, Das Deutsche als Männersprache: Aufsätze und Glossen zur feministischen Linguistik. Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, 198b.

Inge Stephan, Sigrid Weigel, Eds. Feministische Literaturwissenschaft: Zum Verhältnis von Frauenbildern und Frauenliteratur. Berlin: Argument, 1984.

Elisabeth Lenk, Die unbewußte Gesellschaft: Über die mimetische Grund­struktur in der Literatur und im Traum. München, 1983.

Irene Guy, Sexualität im Gedicht: Heinrich Heines Spätlyrik. Bonn: Bouvier, 1984. DM 78.

Helga Meise, Die Unschuld und die Schrift: Deutsche Frauenromane im 18. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Gutandin & Hoppe, 1983.

Dorothee Schmitz, Weibliche Selbstentvürfe und männliche Bilder: Zur Darstellung der Frau in DDR-Romanen der 70er Jahre. Frankfurt/M, Bern,NY, 1983.

Senta Trömel-Plotz, Ed., Gewalt durch Sprache: Die Vergewaltigung von Frauen in Gesprächen. Frankfurt/M., 1984.

Maria Wagner, Ed., Mathilde Franziska Anneke: Die gebrochenen Ketten— Erzählungen, Reportagen und Reden (1861-1873). Stuttgart, 1983.

Karlheinz Fingerhut, Ed., Louise Aston: Ein Lesebuch, Gedichte, Roman, Schriften in Auswahl (1846-1849). Stuttgart, 1983.

Christa Gürtler, Schreiben Frauen anders: Untersuchungen zu Ingeborg Bachmann und Barbara Frischmuth. Stuttgart, 1983.

Ursula Linnhoff, Zur Freiheit, oh, nur einzigen wahren— Schreibende Frauen kämpfen um ihre Rechte. Frankfurt/M, Berlin, Wien, 1983.

Ricarda Schmidt, Westdeutsche Frauenliteratur in den 70er Jahren. Frankfurt/M: Rita Fischer Verlag, 1982.

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Gerlinde Geiger, "Die befreite Psyche”: Emanzipationsansätze im Frühwerk Ida Hahn-Hahns (1838-1848). Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1984.

Julie D. Prandi, Spirited Women Heroes: Major Female Characters in the Dramas of Goethe, Schiller and Kleist. NY, Frankfurt/M, Bern: F. Lang, 1983.

Ute Treder, Von der Hexe zur Hysterikerin: Zur Verfestigungsgeschichte des ’Ewig Weiblichen*. Bonn: Bouvier, 1984.

H.-J. Heinrichs, ed., Der Körper und seine Sprache. Frankfurt/M: Qumram Verlag, 1984.

Rolf Haubl, Eva Koch-Klenske, Hans-Jürgen Linke,eds., Die Sprache des Vaters im Körper der Mutter: Literarischer Sinn und Schreibprozeß. 1983.

Rahel Varnhagen, Gesammelte Werke in 10 Bänden/Rahel Bibliothek, ed. K. Feilchenfeldt, U. Schveikert, R.E. Steiner. München: Matthis & Seitz, 1983.

Ingeborg Bachmann, Wir müssen wahre Satze finden: Gespräache und Interviews, ed. Christine Koschel and Inge von Weidenbaum. München: Piper, 1984.

Ingeborg Bachmann: Sonderband von Text und Kritik, ed. Sigrid Weigel. München: 1984.

Lilian Bema-Simons, Weibliche Identität und Sexualität: Das Bild der Weiblichkeit im 19. Jahrhundert und bei Sigmund Freud. Frankfurt/M: Materialis Verlag, 1984.

Silke Schilling, Die Schlangenfrau: Über matriarchale Symbolik weiblicher Identität und ihre Aufhebung in Mythologie, Märchen, Sage und Literatur. Frankfurt/M: Materialis Verlag, 1984.

Renate Schlesier, Konstruktion der Weiblichkeit bei Sigmund Freud: Zum Problem der Entmythologisierung und Remythologisierung in' der psycho­analytisches Theorie. Europäische Verlagsanstalt. 198?

Frauen-Zukünfte: Ganzheitliche feministische Ansätze, Erfahrungen und Lebenskonzepte, ed. R. Lütz. Beltz Verlag, 198?

Die ungeschriebene Geschichte: Historische Frauenforschung— eine Dokumentation des 5. Historikerinnentreffens. Wiener Frauenverlag, 1011 Wien, Postfach 614, DM 45.

Sigrid Schade, Schadenzauber und die Magie des KSrpers— Hexenbilder der frühen Neuzeit. Wernersche Verlagsanstalt, 1983.

Methoden in der Frauenforschung: Symposion an der FU Berlin vom 30.11­-2.12 1983. ed. Zentraleinrichtung zur Förderung von Frauenstudien und Frauenforschung an der FU Berlin. Fft/M: R. Fischer Verlag, 1984.

Weibliehe Wissenschaft - männliche Wissenschaft; Symposion an der Universität Oldenburg vom 15.-16. Juni 1983. Tagungsbelträge, Oldenburg, 1983.

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Weisefrau, Uta  36
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