Women in German Expressionism: Gender, Sexuality, Activism

• Superior document: Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany Series.
• HerausgeberIn: Finger, Anke,; Shoults, Julie,
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: First edition.
• Language: English
• Series: Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (378 pages)

This collection, for the first time, explores women's self-conceptions and representations of women's and gender roles in society in their own Expressionist works. How did women approach themes commonly considered to be characteristic of the Expressionist movement, and did they address other themes or aesthetics and styles not currently represented in the canon? Women in German Expressionism centers its analysis on gender, together with difference, ethnicity, intersectionality, and identity, to approach artworks and texts in more nuanced ways, engaging solidly established theoretical and sociohistorical approaches that enhance and update our understanding of the material under investigation. It moves beyond the masculine, "New Man," viewpoint so firmly associated with German Expressionism and examines alternative, critical, and divergent interpretations of the changing world at the time. This collection seeks to broaden the theorization, scholarship, and reception of German Expressionism by--much belatedly--including works by women, and by shifting or redefining firmly established concepts and topics carrying only the imprint of male authors and artists to this day.

Table of Contents

Introduction : flipping the prostitute : German Expressionism reexamined after one hundred years / Anke Finger and Julie Shoults -- Intimate strangers : women in German Expressionism / Barbara D. Wright -- Elsa Asenijeff and German Expressionism / Curtis Swope -- Between bohemian brotherhood and the new man : on gender and writing in F. Gräfin zu Reventlow's Herrn Dames Aufzeichnungen (1913) / Carola Daffner -- "Wenn man eine Frau ist" : female protagonists as social revolutionaries / Corinne Painter -- On their own : reconsidering Marianne Werefkin and Gabriele Münter / Katy Klaasmeyer -- Somaesthetics, gender, and the body as media in Claire Goll's racialized Expressionism / Anke Finger -- Gender, sexuality, and the makeup of feminine beauty : Viennese Expressionist ceramics and the Wiselthier Frauenkopf / Megan Brandow-Faller -- The ecstasies of Mela Hartwig-Spira : between laughter and terror / Aleksandra Kudryashova -- Resituating Lu Märten's manifesto of matriarchal socialism in Expressionist debates / Douglas Brent McBride -- Emmy Hennings : the human being as woman / Nicole Shea -- Writing the inner strife : Emmy Hennings's Das Brandmal : Ein Tagebuch (1920) / Mirjam Berg -- "The time is coming" : women writers in the Expressionist journal Die Aktion (1911-1932) / Catherine Smale -- Expressionism and "female insanity" : the lives and works of Else Blankenhorn (1873-1920) / Daniela Müller -- Empathy for outsiders in women's Expressionist literature / Julie Shoults