Betrothal, Violence, and the «Beloved Sacrifice» in Nineteenth-Century German Literature (North American Studies in Nineteenth-Century German Literature and Culture)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820450340 ISBN 13: 9780820450346

Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 2001

In nineteenth-century German prose, violence against women, especially affianced young innocents, is brutal, common, and cathartic. This seemingly paradoxical combination of factors results from the role of literature as a place where problems of sexual and social difference can be investigated safely. Taking social-anthropological and psychoanalytic perspectives into account, this book shows how female figures in the works of that era became transformed into «beloved sacrifices,» whose liminal position between the role of daughter and that of wife and mother made them prime targets for expiatory violence. It also demonstrates the prevalence of this topos, even in the major works of such canonical authors as Hoffmann, Storm, Keller, Raabe, and Fontane.

About the Author:

The Author: Jennifer Cizik Marshall is Assistant Professor of German and Humanities at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. She received her Ph.D. in Germanic languages and literature from Yale University. Her work in nineteenth-century German, women’s studies, and contemporary Austrian topics has been featured in numerous journals and conference panels.