Engaging with the Nation: German Women Writers of the Vormärz and Constructions of National Identity
Open Access
- Author:
- Zajdowicz, Rebecca Ann
- Graduate Program:
- German
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 23, 2010
- Committee Members:
- Daniel Leonhard Purdy, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Daniel Leonhard Purdy, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Thomas Oliver Beebee, Committee Member
Greg Eghigian, Committee Member
Dr Martina Kolb, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Ida Hahn-Hahn
Louise Aston
Fanny Lewald
nationalism
German literature
Vormärz - Abstract:
- According to the French philosopher Etienne Balibar, the histories of nations are always presented in the form of narratives. These narratives create the myths of national origins and seek to tell the story of a national community’s evolution through time to its moment of self-awareness. Literature then, which is often composed of narratives, lends itself well to the telling of national histories and provides the means to create cultural meaning and aid in the construction of national communities. The ascendant narrative of German nationhood during the first half of the nineteenth century was ethnocultural. Conceptions of nation and national community were based around notions of common ancestry and similarity of culture and language. This narrative was created out of a desire to resurrect a German national past which linked the German nationalist project to Protestantism through such figures as Martin Luther who fought against papal despotism and translated the Bible into German, and to middle-class, bourgeois values, since middle-class, intellectual men were the main proponents and champions of German nationalism. This also meant that German nationalism was conceived of in gendered terms, where ideally, men would occupy and have access to the public sphere and women would be relegated to the private sphere. This dissertation aims to look at the proliferation of meanings of Germanness and investigate the diversity and fluidity of national belonging in the Vormärz period (1815-1848) of German history through the examination of three novels written by three different German women, Fanny Lewald, Ida Hahn-Hahn and Louise Aston. Writing in the Vormärz period leading up to the Revolution of 1848, these women writers offer an interesting cross-section of nineteenth-century German society. Their novels accentuate the intersection of gender, class and religion and thus provide a good model for examining difference among women writers, as well as, the creation of alternative narratives of German national identity. Through the examination of these texts, one can explore the ways in which marginal groups engaged and critiqued this dominant vision of national identity and how they attempted to write a place for themselves in the German nation. Thus, my analysis presents one with the range of meanings of Germanness and allows one to see the multiplicity of voices which are always present in any debate. This study aims to expand on the growing body of work which is being done on nineteenth century German women writers. It also attempts to synthesize issues, such as gender, class and religion in women’s writing, which are often examined individually, but rarely in conjunction with one another. Further, it explores how women were able to create a public space for themselves through literature and engage in the culturally and politically charged discourses of the day. Feminist scholars owe much to the plight of these women and in analyzing their texts, one can gain a better understanding as to how diverse women positioned themselves vis á vis an emerging nationalist discourse that sought to exclude them from political participation.