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Charts developments in nineteenth-century literature in German corresponding to burgeoning capitalism, significant increases in women's participation in society outside the home, and a proliferation of transnational encounters.
The nineteenth century was a turbulent period in the German-speaking territories. Until 1806, most belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, comprising roughly 300 individual states. By 1900, the region had consolidated into Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Germany itself had become an empire, marked by a strong sense of national identity and overseas colonies in Africa and Oceania. These momentous geopolitical shifts were accompanied by industrial, social, and economic transformations that affected all aspects of life.
Changes that both resulted from and fed into these geopolitical developments included the burgeoning of the capitalist marketplace and material culture, a great increase in women's participation in society beyond the domestic sphere, and a proliferation of transnational encounters. This volume's essays explore these three areas of multidirectional influence in literary works, popular serials, and travel writing. Their topics range from material culture in Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's 1842 novella Die Judenbuche to branding in the popular periodical Die Gartenlaube and to the relationship of women's agency to animals in Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's 1890 novel Unsühnbar, from girl's novels of the 1880s and 90s to melancholy and menopause in the work of Hedwig Dohm, and finally to transnational factors in works by Johann Christoph Biernatzki, Balduin Möllhausen, Julius Stinde, and, in a comparative vein, Adalbert Stifter and Willa Cather.
The nineteenth century was a turbulent period in the German-speaking territories. Until 1806, most belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, comprising roughly 300 individual states. By 1900, the region had consolidated into Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Germany itself had become an empire, marked by a strong sense of national identity and overseas colonies in Africa and Oceania. These momentous geopolitical shifts were accompanied by industrial, social, and economic transformations that affected all aspects of life.
Changes that both resulted from and fed into these geopolitical developments included the burgeoning of the capitalist marketplace and material culture, a great increase in women's participation in society beyond the domestic sphere, and a proliferation of transnational encounters. This volume's essays explore these three areas of multidirectional influence in literary works, popular serials, and travel writing. Their topics range from material culture in Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's 1842 novella Die Judenbuche to branding in the popular periodical Die Gartenlaube and to the relationship of women's agency to animals in Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's 1890 novel Unsühnbar, from girl's novels of the 1880s and 90s to melancholy and menopause in the work of Hedwig Dohm, and finally to transnational factors in works by Johann Christoph Biernatzki, Balduin Möllhausen, Julius Stinde, and, in a comparative vein, Adalbert Stifter and Willa Cather.
Price: $120.00
Pages: 240
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Camden House
Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture
Publication Date:
15 September 2026
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781640143579
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / European / German, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Women, HISTORY / Europe / Germany, Gender studies: women and girls, European history
In Memoriam: Lisabeth Hock
Introduction
Lisabeth Hock and Petra Watzke
Section I: The Capitalist Marketplace and Material Culture
1: Traces of Nascent Capitalism: The Pocket Watch in Die Judenbuche (1842)
Petra Watzke
2: An Eye for Women Writers: Endorsements, Branding, and Self-Promotion in Die Gartenlaube
Kirsten Belgum
3: Bourgeois Vision, Staged Authenticity, and American Progress: Nature, Technology, and Mass Tourism in the Works of Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Arthur Holitscher, and Felix Salten
Bartell Berg
Section II: Searching for Female Agency
4: Freifrau oder freie Frau? Agency, Animals, and the Aristocracy in Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's Unsühnbar (1890)
Sarah Hillenbrand Varela
5: To Dress, to Mend, and to Feel Like a Lady: Tomboys and Formal Education in the Girls' Novels Der Trotzkopf (1885) аnd Mamsell Übermut (1891)
Victoria Vygodskaia-Rust
6: Years of Change: Melancholy and Menopause in the Work of Hedwig Dohm
Lisabeth Hock
Section III: Transnational Geography7: A Transnational Mignon: Intersections of Race, Gender, Genre, and Religion in Johann Christoph Biernatzki's Der Braune Knabe (1839)
Judith E. Martin
8: Gender, Race, and Space: National Identity Formation and Colonial Fantasies in Balduin Möllhausen's Wildes Blut (1884)
Nicole Grewling
9: Julius Stinde's Buchholzen's in Italien (1883) and Frau Buchholz im Orient (1888): Berlin Kleinbürgertum Abroad
Daniela Richter
10: Writing the Prairie, Writing the Steppes: An Ethnography of Place in Stifter's Brigitta (1844) and Cather's O Pioneers! (1913)
Alyssa Howards
Notes on Contributors
Index
Introduction
Lisabeth Hock and Petra Watzke
Section I: The Capitalist Marketplace and Material Culture
1: Traces of Nascent Capitalism: The Pocket Watch in Die Judenbuche (1842)
Petra Watzke
2: An Eye for Women Writers: Endorsements, Branding, and Self-Promotion in Die Gartenlaube
Kirsten Belgum
3: Bourgeois Vision, Staged Authenticity, and American Progress: Nature, Technology, and Mass Tourism in the Works of Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Arthur Holitscher, and Felix Salten
Bartell Berg
Section II: Searching for Female Agency
4: Freifrau oder freie Frau? Agency, Animals, and the Aristocracy in Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's Unsühnbar (1890)
Sarah Hillenbrand Varela
5: To Dress, to Mend, and to Feel Like a Lady: Tomboys and Formal Education in the Girls' Novels Der Trotzkopf (1885) аnd Mamsell Übermut (1891)
Victoria Vygodskaia-Rust
6: Years of Change: Melancholy and Menopause in the Work of Hedwig Dohm
Lisabeth Hock
Section III: Transnational Geography7: A Transnational Mignon: Intersections of Race, Gender, Genre, and Religion in Johann Christoph Biernatzki's Der Braune Knabe (1839)
Judith E. Martin
8: Gender, Race, and Space: National Identity Formation and Colonial Fantasies in Balduin Möllhausen's Wildes Blut (1884)
Nicole Grewling
9: Julius Stinde's Buchholzen's in Italien (1883) and Frau Buchholz im Orient (1888): Berlin Kleinbürgertum Abroad
Daniela Richter
10: Writing the Prairie, Writing the Steppes: An Ethnography of Place in Stifter's Brigitta (1844) and Cather's O Pioneers! (1913)
Alyssa Howards
Notes on Contributors
Index