Feminist literary studies

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Feminist literary studies was a direction within literary studies that was partisan in the sense of feminist goals . Depending on the chosen perspective, her central objects were, on the one hand, women who write and publish in their literary, social and economic contexts, and, on the other hand, women's literature . In addition to epoch-spanning stories of women’s literature and literary anthologies, the subject areas of “women writers and emancipation ” and “feminist literary theories” favored the temporary worldwide recognition and institutionalization of feminist literary studies until the 1990s.

Origin and development

The development of this politically motivated direction was causally related to feminism and women's studies before and after 1945 and, beyond that, also to the resurgence of Marxism in the 1960s and the 1968 movement . From the beginning, French and American thinkers dominated the feature pages and the scientific field.

The German combination of words "feminist literary studies" can currently be verified first in the case of Professor Marie Luise Gansberg, who has been teaching at the University of Marburg since 1972 ("Since the winter of 1976 I have been familiarizing myself with a new area of ​​science: Women's Studies, here: feminist literary studies" ) and on an advertisement page of number 48 of the magazine Kursbuch 1977, where Courage-Verlag published the anthology Women and Science. Contributions to the Berlin Summer University for Women, July 1976 applied. The "Feminist Literary Studies Unit" established at the University of Hamburg began its work in 1985. The last-mentioned date should not obscure the fact that many important foundations for the establishment of feminist literary studies were already laid in the 1970s, which is why this decade deserves more emphasis than the two following.

Feminist literary scholars dealt with older research in a critical of ideology and domination, especially with statements that discriminate against women by well-known male literary scholars, with the male-dominated literary canon and, occasionally, with questions of science policy, but they did not go as far as authoritarian hierarchies at the universities and the qualification hurdle the habilitation, which has always offered "the hidden opportunity to keep women away from highly qualified professions" to declare war. Significantly, it was not the partisan attitude of feminist literary studies, which conflicted with open-ended research, and its fragmentation that made interest in a decidedly “feminist” literary study fade, but the race of fashions supported by feminist professors, internal processes of differentiation and scholarly influence and the powerful processes of influence of male clusters when filling vacancies. In addition to this, Barbara Hahn:

“If the signs are not deceptive, the zenith of 'feminist literary studies' has already passed, at least in Germany. Terminologically, there is a paradigmatic change (...). It remains to be seen whether this development will find enough space in the desolate German university landscape of the late 1990s. Because the question of the idea of ​​a university at the end of this century has not been responded to by opening up to new questions and fields of research, but rather by redisciplining, ie returning to traditional channels. This particularly affects areas of research that address gender relations, whether they stay within the subject boundaries as 'feminist literary studies' did in Germany, or whether they - like 'gender studies' - strive for a disciplinary reorientation. Institutionally, their water is not only being dug up in the name of austerity measures. "

- Barbara Hahn : Feminist Literary Studies , 1990, p. 225

The notion that feminist literary studies abolished itself in relation to the declining attraction of the second women's movement is based on the misconception that feminist literary studies always clearly formulated their own political goals and pursued them with great commitment.

Services

Unless knowledgeable and thorough chronicles of feminist literary studies put an end to this trend, the comparatively short history of this a-room-of-one's-own "liberation movement", which is like a flash in the pan, whose scientific results are considerable in sum, will be more and more more abandoned to oblivion.

Feminist literary studies focused on the following subjects, among others:

Individual writers with a focus on life and work (e.g. Hrotsvit von Gandersheim , Sidonia Hedwig Zigarunemann , Louise Otto-Peters , Irmtraud Morgner ) or individual aspects (e.g. the history of the reception of Ingeborg Bachmann's works )
Writing and publishing women summarized according to criteria such as place of residence, country, genre, epoch (e.g. exiled writers, Austrian writers, diary writers, German-speaking playwrights in the 18th and 19th centuries)
Literary motifs with explicit or implicit reference to women (e.g. love of women, female sexuality, death)
Fictional female characters (e.g. mother, daughter, femme fatale, the old woman, the lesbian woman, prostitute).
Literary processing of heroines and negative figures from history and mythology (e.g. Joan of Arc , Amazons , Kassandra )
Images of women and roles of women in different genres and literary epochs (e.g. image of women and the concept of femininity in the 19th century)

Added to this were the complexes of oppression and violence mechanisms of patriarchal society and female authorship, language and female writing , feminist literary theories, literature and emancipation , women's movement and literature, feminist utopias in literature, female reading socialization and book ownership.

The revised edition of Women's Literature History published in 1999 and edited by Hiltrud Gnüg and Renate Möhrmann (original edition Metzler Verlag 1985, licensed edition Suhrkamp Verlag 1989 and the second edition 2003) spans from the Middle Ages to the present, from Europe and the USA to sub-Saharan Africa and is divided into nine chapters: I. Monasteries, courtyards and salons - spaces for literary self-development, II. Female education and training concepts, III. New genres as a medium for female writing (letters, travelogues, memoirs, autobiography), IV. Fantastic literature, V. Theater as a conquered space, VI. Lyric Voices, VII. Women's Rights - Human Rights, VIII. Erotic Literature, XI. New literary trends in the second half of the 20th century.

In the final phase from the 1990s onwards, the social creation of gender differences, gender roles and the cultural-semantic coding of the pair of terms “ femininity ” / “ masculinity ” were common starting points of feminist literary studies. In this way, their representatives paved the way for literary gender and literary gender research.

Through scientific and journalistic publications, lectures, the database project "Writers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland 1945-2008" (DaSinD), conferences, lectures, lecture series, readings and exhibitions, feminist literary scholars and feminist librarians worked in association with feminist writers, feminist literary critics, Feminist publishers and booksellers help to increase the visibility of women who write and publish in the past and present and to form a feminist literary public.

criticism

Feminist literary scholars subjected the primary sources (rarely archival material), which had already been extensively bibliographically recorded from previous research, to in-depth analyzes, often combined with the intention of circulating new questions and literary-sociological, ideology-critical, structuralist, poststructuralist, psychoanalytic or deconstructivist approaches to individual works or text compilations without applying the To question the process of application and to address the problem of epigones. This was accompanied by a general lack of self-criticism. This problem context and the deficits shown below were below the perception threshold.

Descriptive terms appeared to feminist literary scholars as uncreative, restrictive fetters that hinder progress. The result was vague terms and pseudoscientific definitions.

Not only the exposed position, the theory was also and especially when it was a matter of mere takeovers or instead of scientific theory " philosophical knowledge forms the telos", but also the demonstrative solidarity with the narrow, normative literature concept of classical aesthetics such as literary criticism and the acclamation of originality-seeking language acrobatics also catapulted elementary scientific evaluation categories such as the degree of difficulty of research projects, the magnitude of the innovations achieved individually or in teams and the benefits of these innovations for the specialist community to a subordinate position. In the sign of the revaluation of the subjective and the private and a strengthening self-confidence, what you researched yourself was considered new and benchmark. Corresponding to this attitude, no efforts were made to compile a bibliography comparable to that of the “Research Group Women Art History”.

Feminist literary scholars have shown no interest at all in dealing with the gender quarrel in the here and now and in scientific ethics, and under these circumstances undermined their feminist claim to bring about societal changes that meet the needs of women. Topics such as "Equal opportunities undermining practices in teaching and research", "The repressed dark sides of the study conditions of female students and the working life of female scientists: Not heard and promoted by and not recognized and valued by to exclusion, bullying and other forms of violence", “Shelters for victims”, “dropouts”, “Women's poverty and solidarity in literature and society”, “Cultures of mistrust and stigmatization” and more were never at the center of the literary studies that feminist literary studies helped to represent.

Delimitation criteria

Feminist literary studies stood, among other things, on the shoulders of literary research on women, which is still characterized by isolation today. In terms of its self-image, it was the counter-program to male-oriented literary studies with its chauvinistic tendencies. In the course of the triumphant advance of gender research, former feminist literary scholars became “gender researchers” in the vast majority of cases and without ever having made the necessary conceptual clarifications on a scientific basis. You and the next generation of researchers and gender -forscherinnen are united in the goal of gender policy making and global socio-political changes trigger to want.

Recent and recent literary research on women, which is under the influence of digitization and should not be underestimated in terms of its relevance, scope and potential political explosiveness, is much broader than feminist literary studies in terms of the sources used and the consideration of multilingualism and multiculturalism phenomena is methodologically more stringent, terminologically more precise and innovative, especially on the factual, topic and theoretical level, and also more connectable to interdisciplinary research.

Whether a contribution belongs to one direction or the other can mainly be determined by whether feminist primary and secondary texts are cited to a greater extent and comparatively unquestioned, and whether theory is “hyped” at the expense of methodological questions and original innovation. Feminist literary studies also include researchers who described themselves as feminist literary scholars and who took part in conferences of the “Feminist Literary Studies Unit”.

Scientific libraries subsumed publications that can be assigned to feminist literary studies under the keyword "Women's Studies" or under "Women's and Gender Studies".

Literary gender research is based on the results of literary and historical research on women, men and trans people, provided that relevant research is available. Contrary to popular belief, gender research is by no means a synonymous or superordinate term for women, men, transpersons, gender and queer research; Rather, this research direction is characterized by a high degree of specialization, which results from the fact that gender research does not specialize in the recording of similarities and differences between the sexes, but focuses on describing and classifying social and psychological processes, the gender and gender-specific attributions purport.

Main representatives

Synergies

The relationship between feminist literary studies and feminist linguistics was extremely close and reciprocal, especially in the 1980s.

Feminist literary criticism took on and takes on a mediating function towards the book trade, the libraries, the mass media, literary classes in schools and universities and those audiences who read and educate themselves in private.

literature

Magazines

  • Women in Literary Studies. Rundbrief / Universität Hamburg, literary studies seminar 1–50, 1983–1997.
  • Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture 1–33, 1985–2017 (for a considerable time also occasionally with contributions in German).
  • Virginia. Journal for women's book criticism 1986–
  • literaturkritik.de 1999–

Articles and book publications

  • Katharine M. Rogers: The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature . Seattle and London: University of Washington Press 1966.
  • Susan Koppelman Cornillon (Ed.): Images of Women in Fiction: Feminist Perspectives . Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Popular Press 1972.
  • Silvia Bovenschen: About the question: Is there a “feminine” aesthetic? in: Aesthetics and Communication 7, 1976, H. 25, pp. 60-75.
  • Hildegard Brenner (ed.): The smile of Medusa (alternative; 108/109). Berlin: Alternative Verlag 1976.
  • Renate Möhrmann: The other woman. Approaches to Emancipation by German Women Writers in the Run-Up to the Forty-Eight Revolution. Stuttgart: Metzler 1977.
  • Gisela Brinker-Gabler (ed.): German poets from the 16th century to the present . Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag 1978 (further editions 1979, 1980, 1990, 1991, digital edition 2001, new edition 2007).
  • Silvia Bovenschen: The imagined femininity. Exemplary studies on cultural-historical and literary forms of presentation of the feminine. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1979 (numerous subsequent editions).
  • Renate Möhrmann: Feminist approaches in German studies since 1945 in: Yearbook for international German studies 11, 1979, pp. 63–84.
  • Wolfgang Paulsen (Ed.): The woman as heroine and author. New critical approaches to German literature . Bern and Munich: Francke 1979.
  • Ulla Bock and Barbara Witych: Subject: Woman. Bibiography of German-language literature on the question of women 1949–1979. Bielefeld: AJZ-Druck und Verlag 1980.
  • Hiltrud Gnüg, Renate Möhrmann (Hrsg.): Women literature history. Writing women from the Middle Ages to the present. Stuttgart: Metzler 1985 (2nd, completely revised and expanded edition 1999).
  • Sigrid Weigel: The doubling of the male gaze and the exclusion of women from literary studies in: Karin Hausen and Helga Nowotny (eds.), How masculine is science? . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1986, pp. 43-61.
  • Ingrid Bennewitz (Ed.): Der frauwen buoch. Try a feminist medieval studies . Göppingen: Kümmerle 1989.
  • Barbara Hahn : Feminist literary studies in: Klaus-Michael Bogdal (Ed.), New Literary Theories. An introduction. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1990, pp. 225–241 (3rd edition 2005).
  • Helga Gallas and Anita Runge: Novels and short stories by German women writers around 1800. A bibiography with proof of location . Stuttgart and Weimar: Metzler 1993.
  • Friederike Eigler and Susanne Kord (eds.): The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature . Westport and London: Greenwood Press 1997.
  • Jutta Osinski: Introduction to Feminist Literary Studies. Berlin: Erich Schmidt 1998.
  • Sabine Koloch: Marie-Luise Gansberg : The successful, the taboo-breaker, the traumatized. Biographical approaches to a sixty-eight woman and a pioneer of “feminist literary studies” in: 1968 in der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft (literaturkritik.de archive / special editions) (2018) ( PDF online ).

See also

Web links

  • Sophie - A Digital Library of Works by German-Speaking Women (digital library of the works of German-speaking women), Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University (digitization of Gisela Brinker-Gabler's poetry anthology from 1978 and data entry into the database ).
  • www.fembio.org - Women's Biography Research .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. also Gisela von Wysocki: Frauen-Bilder im Aufbruch in: Kursbuch 47, 1977, pp. 91–113.
  2. ↑ Ulla Bock: pioneering work. The first female professors for women's and gender studies at German-speaking universities 1984–2014 . Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus 2015, p. 205. Further information on the “Feminist Literary Studies Office” can be found in the META database of the ida umbrella organization. The association "FrideL - Women in Literary Studies" was founded one year after the discontinuation of the newsletter Women in Literary Studies (1-50, 1983-1997) in Bremen [1] .
  3. ↑ Jutta Osinski: Men lecturing, women studying in: Der Deutschunterricht 42, 1990, pp. 90–98.
  4. ↑ Sabine Koloch: discussion platform of the undogmatic left. The magazine “Alternative” and its editor Hildegard Brenner in: 1968 in der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft (literaturkritik.de archive / special editions) (2020) online .
  5. ↑ Fundamental in this regard: Katrin Gut: Feministische Literaturwissenschaft in: Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft , Vol. 1: A – G. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter 1997, pp. 575-577.
  6. ↑ Sabine Koloch: Science, Gender, Gender, Terminology Work - The German Literature Studies . Munich: epodium Verlag 2017, p. 11f. ( PDF online ).
  7. ↑ Sabine Koloch: Science, Gender, Gender, Terminology Work - The German Literature Studies . Munich: epodium Verlag 2017, p. 36 the following definition: "Literary gender studies - direction within literary studies that compares the sexes and their relationships in fiction and reality".
  8. ↑ Sabine Koloch: Science, Gender, Gender, Terminology Work - The German Literature Studies . Munich: epodium Verlag 2017, p. 35: "Gender research in literary studies - research direction within literary studies that documents and analyzes gender and gender-related self and external attributions".
  9. ^ Stiftung Frauen-Literatur-Forschung eV, Bremen [2] .
  10. ↑ Cf. Katrin Gut on the term and designation 'Feminist Literary Studies': “On the one hand, the category was used increasingly semantically fuzzy (...). On the other hand, the term remained controversial both externally and internally and was not only used as a fighting term by one's own but also by the male opposing side ”. Katrin Gut: Feminist literary studies in: Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft , Vol. 1: A – G. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter 1997, p. 575f.
  11. ↑ Sabine Koloch: Science, Gender, Gender, Terminology Work - The German Literature Studies . Munich: epodium Verlag 2017, p. 55.
  12. ^ Marie Luise Gansberg: University of Marburg, Women's Research & Teaching at the Institute for Modern German Literature in: Women in Literary Studies. Rundbrief 5, 1987, 13, p. 8.
  13. ↑ Feminist bibliography on women's studies in art history . Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus 1993.
  14. ↑ "(...) to proclaim an end to feminism, as long as it is not the circumstances but only the explanatory patterns that have changed, is tantamount to an affirmation of the status quo." Lena Lindhoff: Introduction to feminist literary theory . Stuttgart: Metzler 1995, p. Ix.
  15. ↑ Sabine Koloch: The Emperor's New Clothes: About Success Simulation, Counterproductive Selection Processes and Science Control in: Forum Wissenschaft 33, 2016, No. 3, pp. 47–50 online .
  16. ↑ Axel Esser: Mobbing and its relevance for gender equality work in: Karin Reiche (Ed.), Women at Universities. Promotion, competition, bullying . Dresden: TU, Unit Equality for Women and Men 1995, pp. 46–64.
  17. ↑ Sabine Koloch: Science, Gender, Gender, Terminology Work - The German Literature Studies . Munich: epodium Verlag 2017, p. 34: "Women's research in literature - direction within literary studies that researches women-oriented".
  18. ↑ Sabine Koloch: Science, Gender, Gender, Terminology Work - The German Literature Studies . Munich: epodium Verlag 2017, p. 9.
  19. ↑ Thomas Anz: literary criticism, theater criticism in: Walter Killy (Ed.), Literature Lexicon , Vol. 14: Terms, Realities, Methods . Edited by Volker Meid. Gütersloh and Munich: Bertelsmann 1993, SS 38–41, here p. 38.