 | Armed Ambiguity: Women Warriors in German Literature and Culture in the Age of Goethe Subjects: Women in literature -- History -- 18th century; Women in literature -- History -- 19th century; German literature -- History and criticism -- 18th century; German literature -- History and criticism -- 19th century; Violence in literature; Femininity in l; Armed Ambiguity is a fascinating examination of the tropes of the woman warrior constructed by print culture--including press reports, novels, dramatic works, and lyrical texts--during the decades-long conflict in Europe around 1800. In it, Julie Koser sheds new light on how women's bodies became a battleground for competing social, cultural, and political agendas in one of the most pivotal periods of modern history. She traces the women warriors in this work as reflections of the social and political climate in German-speaking lands, and she reveals how literary texts and cultural artifacts that highlight women's armed insurrection perpetuated the false dichotomy of "public" versus "private" spheres along a gendered fault line. Koser illuminates how reactionary visions of "ideal femininity" competed with subversive fantasies of new femininities in the ideological battle being waged over the restructuring of German society. JULIE KOSER is an associate professor in the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Maryland. |
