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Hardcover
Published: 15th April 2000
ISBN: 9781571131485
Number Of Pages: 236
Susanne Kord offers a critical re-examination of the traditional image of this most pivotal of all female Enlightenment authors. Central to her discussion are Gottsched's dramas and her letters to Johann Christoph Gottsched, her husband and mentor, and to Dorothea Henriette von Runckel, her friend and confidante. Both the letters, edited and censored by Runckel, and the plays, commissioned and controlled by her husband, reveal a number of highly intriguing "detours" from the path of conventionality: biographical aberrations in her letters (her chagrined loyalty to her husband, her highly passionate "friendship" with Runckel) and poetological deviations from her husband's poetics expressed in her dramas. In view of the fact that theory and poetology were considered an exclusively male domain, one moreover largely dominated by her own husband, Gottsched's perhaps most significant deviation consists of her veiled contributions to the definition of major literary concepts of her day, such as originality and authorship, in her forewords and dramas. And originality and authorship are still the issue: based on new evidence that calls Gottsched's exclusive authorship of her own letters into question, Kord examines to what extent scholars have for centuries perpetuated authorial images that were decisively shaped by her original editors--her husband and her best friend. Susanne Kord is professor of German at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. She is co-editor of Unwrapping Goethe's Weimar, also published by Camden House.
Will serve as a necessary and long overdue correction to prior scholarly neglect and misperception. BOOKWATCH
This book does some creditable spadework by showing how Luise Gottsched has been "edited out" of German literary history. JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES
In setting a framework for new investigation, [the book] is an invaluable contribution to the critical appraisal of women writers of this period. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW
A commendable new discussion of [Luise] Gottsched's work. [The book] fosters a multiplicity of critical approaches and encourages further examination of Gottsched by feminist critics that will surely lead to new insights .... SEMINAR
Kord has managed to present a book both introductory to the new student and enriching to anyone who has looked at previous commentary on Gottsched. RESTORATION AND 18TH CENTURY THEATRE RESEARCH
| Illustrations | |
| Preface | |
| Expectations: Portraits of the Author | p. 1 |
| The Birth of an Author: Failed Hopes | p. 1 |
| A Woman and An Author: Life - and Work | p. 4 |
| A Woman or an Author: Paradox and Paradigm | p. 7 |
| Originality: Contaminated Letters and Textual Hierarchies | p. 23 |
| The Text as Original: Historicizing "Authenticity" | p. 23 |
| The Text as Template: Editorial Interventions | p. 25 |
| Textual Bases: On the Search for Biographical Truths | p. 33 |
| Negotiations: Letters to Johann Christoph Gottsched | p. 41 |
| Vacillations: The Mentor and the Lover | p. 41 |
| Visions: Death and the Lover | p. 43 |
| Virtues: Negotiating Enlightenment Discourse | p. 46 |
| A Little Detour: Negotiating Authorship | p. 49 |
| Prophecy and Manipulation: Runckel as Editor | p. 56 |
| Ailing Women and Bartered Brides: Comedies | p. 67 |
| Character Constellations: Flawed Families, Diminutive Daughters, Reasonable Female Critics | p. 70 |
| Plot Essentials: Ailing Women | p. 75 |
| Not for Love and Not for Money: Happy Endings Beyond Marriage | p. 82 |
| On Tradition and Influence: Late Eighteenth-Century Drama | p. 86 |
| On Faith and Failure: Tragedy | p. 107 |
| Temptations: The Implied Alternative | p. 111 |
| Ye Gods: Poetic Injustice | p. 115 |
| The Teleology of Suicide | p. 117 |
| A So-Called Tragedy | p. 124 |
| On Guilt and Innocence: Authorship | p. 131 |
| The Innocent Ruse: Making a Name for Herself | p. 132 |
| The Innocent Translator: On the Guilt of Female Authorship | p. 138 |
| Guilt by Dissociation: Women Writers and the Editorial Voice | p. 143 |
| Mitigating Circumstances: Women Writers and Male Mentorship | p. 145 |
| Between Friendship and Love: Letters to Dorothea Henriette von Runckel | p. 155 |
| Chercher la Femme: Lesbianism, Friendship, and the Sentimental Discourse | p. 157 |
| "Inseparable and Eternal": Friends and Lovers | p. 160 |
| The Third Wheel: Rivals | p. 165 |
| Questionable Methods: The Sentimental Discourse versus Biographical Speculation | p. 171 |
| The Politics of Mourning: Epilogue | p. 181 |
| Conclusion | p. 193 |
| Works Consulted | p. 199 |
| Index | p. 215 |
| Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9781571131485
ISBN-10: 1571131485
Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture
Audience:
Professional
Format:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 236
Published: 15th April 2000
Publisher: CAMDEN HOUSE INC
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 23.72 x 16.1
x 2.31
Weight (kg): 0.5
Earn 298 Qantas Points
on this Book
![Little Detours : The Letters and Plays of Luise Gottsched [1713-1762] - Susanne Kord](https://www.booktopia.com.au/http_coversbooktopiacomau/big/9781571131485/9104/little-detours.jpg)
