The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature

(Hardback)

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Description

Today, a multiplicity of feminist approaches has become an integral part of the fields of German literary and cultural studies. This reference sythesizes the wealth of feminist scholarship in German studies. The volume contains topical entries and covers the role of women in German literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the present day. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on more than 500 topics. While some entries are provided for important women writers and other individuals, the bulk of the volume provides information on literary periods, epochs and genres; critical approaches and theories; female stereotypes; laws and historical developments; literary concepts and themes; and organizations and archives relevant to women and women's studies. Each entry includes a brief identification of the subject, a discussion of feminist thought on the topic and a brief bibliography. Entries reflect a range of critical/theoretical approaches.

Reviews

The Feminist Encyclopedia takes a new approach to the tradition of encyclopedic writing. It offers new terms, some of which have only been established in the last twenty five years through women's liberation, the institutionalization of gender studies and cultural studies. The range of entries is impressive.-Women in German
This is a groundbreaking work whose title accurately describes its content: it aims to provide a feminist guide to German literature rather than such a guide to feminist or women's literature as a separate category.-Michigan Germanic Studies
This remarkable encyclopedia is a timely and valuable complement to more traditional single-volume compendia.... Its editors have assembled a vast amount of information related to both the personalities and subjects of German literature from a feminist perspective, and in doing so have created a work of original scholarship and great scholarliness....A key addition to reference libraries of German literature.-Choice
This work is an important addition to feminist literary and cultural scholarship within German Studies....This work can function as a ready reference source on most topics in German women's literature and cultural studies, and it is more accessible than the reference works which have served as handbooks on the subject to date.-Journal of English and Germanic Philology
"The Feminist Encyclopedia takes a new approach to the tradition of encyclopedic writing. It offers new terms, some of which have only been established in the last twenty five years through women's liberation, the institutionalization of gender studies and cultural studies. The range of entries is impressive."-Women in German
"This is a groundbreaking work whose title accurately describes its content: it aims to provide a feminist guide to German literature rather than such a guide to feminist or women's literature as a separate category."-Michigan Germanic Studies
"This work is an important addition to feminist literary and cultural scholarship within German Studies....This work can function as a ready reference source on most topics in German women's literature and cultural studies, and it is more accessible than the reference works which have served as handbooks on the subject to date."-Journal of English and Germanic Philology
"This remarkable encyclopedia is a timely and valuable complement to more traditional single-volume compendia.... Its editors have assembled a vast amount of information related to both the personalities and subjects of German literature from a feminist perspective, and in doing so have created a work of original scholarship and great scholarliness....A key addition to reference libraries of German literature."-Choice

Author Bio

FRIEDERIKE EIGLER is an Associate Professor in the German Department at Georgetown University./e She specializes in 20th century German literature and feminist criticism, and has published on contemporary women writers, post-unification literature, and the German colonial novel, among other topics. SUSANNE KORD is an Associate Professor in the German Department at Georgetown University. An authority on 18th and 19th century German literature, she has published on topics such as 18th and 19th century dramas by women, women's anonymity, feminine virtue, infanticide in literature, and friendships between women in the 18th and 19th centuries.