The Wasting Heroine in German Fiction by Women 1770-1914

by Anna Richards

Overview

In this broad-ranging study, Richards examines the representation of women's illness in German fiction by women 1770-1914. In the context of medical history, she focuses particularly on female self-starvation and wasting diseases, illustrating how the "wasting heroine" both reinforced and challenged popular notions of female fragility.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199267545
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/25/2004
Series:	Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Birkbeck College, University of London

Table of Contents

Introduction1. 'On peut le comparer [. . .] à une sorte de maladie': Women and Medicine2. 'Die zarte Pflanze welkte hin': Wasting Women in German Fiction by Men3. 'Ich sterbe, weil ich dich liebte': Conventional Wasting in Fiction by Women4. 'Man stirbt wirklich nicht aus Liebesgram, obschon Ihr Männer dieses gerne glauben möchtet': Alternative Wasting Heroines5. 'Die bleichen, vom Nichtsthun, von Sehnsucht und Enttäuschung verzehrten Mädchen': Repression and Apathy in Gabriele Reuter6. 'Freiheit will ich! körperlose, schrankenlose!': Helene Böhlau, Hedwig Dohm, and the Emancipatory Value of Illness, Food Refusal, and VegetarianismConclusionBibliography

Editorial Reviews

"The study is impressive in its breadth and depth. Richard elucidates a topic of concern to women today, as the gendered aetiology of depression, for example, indicates.... It systematically traces the trope of illness and health over a century and digests the existing secondary literature in elegant prose. Wasting Heroine contributes much needed literary and historical research on the gendered nature of health."—German Studies Review

From the Publisher