From Germany, Special Issue: A. Dünnebier, G. v. Paczensky. The Activist Life of Alice Schwarzer. The Biography… A. Schwarzer. A Fatal Love. Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian… A. Schwarzer. Marion Dönhoff. A Resistant Life... A. Schwarzer. Romy Schneider–Myth and Life… A. Schwarzer. The Big Difference. Against Splitting Human Beings into Men and Women ... A. Schwarzer. Alice in MrLand. An Interim Appraisal by Alice Schwarzer… A. Schwarzer, ed. The Jihad Fighters and False Tolerance… A. Schwarzer, B. Maia. Dear Alice! Dear Barbara!... M. Moyrer. Women to the Fore! A Report on the Women’s Media Tower, Cologne. A. Schwarzer. The Answer…

From Germany: V. Gebhardt. Women in Opera. Grand Voices–Grand Roles… L. Habermann-Horstmeier et al. German Women Executives in Middle and Top Management. Report on the Glass Ceiling –Results of an Empirical Study of 300 Women Managers. L. M. Koldau. Women–Music–Culture: A Handbook on German-speaking Regions in the Renaissance… G. Loster-Schneider, G. Pailer, eds. Dictionary of Women Authors of Epic and Drama in German (1730 – 1900)… I. Rohner, N. Müller, eds. Hedwig Dohm–Selected Texts. A Reader to Celebrate the 175th Anniversary of Her Birth with Essays, Serials, Novellas, Dialogues, Aphorisms and Letters… U. Vogel, ed. Approaches to Sociology of Gender and Women’s Studies. Autobiographical Sketches of Female University Professors–the First Generation…

From Greece: C. Lambrinides. Introducing…The Centre for Creative Writing & Theatre for Conflict Resolution An Overview. A. Stratigopoulou. I Will Ask Daddy No More…

From Hungary: K. Koncz. Women in Politics. From the Start of Regime Change to the Present. A. Petõ. Sex, Gender, Politics and Stalinism in Hungary: A Biography of Júlia Rajk.

From Italy: L. Borghi & U. Treder, eds. The Global and the Private: Sites of No Return… L. Loredana. More Kudos to Little Girls… R. Svandrlik, ed. Elfriede Jelinek: A Different Prose, a Different Theatre…

From Serbia: D. Đjurić. Speech of Others... B. Dojčinović-Nešić. Modern World Cartographer: John Updike’s Novels. S. Slapšak. Female Icons of Antiquity…

From Spain: C. Magallón. Women on the Peace Path. Thought and Praxis… A. González I Vilalta. The Irruption of Women in Catalanism (1931-1936)…

From Switzerland: V. Stefan. Migration–Aliens Asleep?…

Shortakes From Bulgaria, France, Germany, Israel, Serbia

Managing Editors: Waltraud Dumont du Voitel Tobe Levin Guest editor, focus on Alice Schwarzer: Jeanette Clausen

Published by Dr. Liana Borghi, University of Florence The German Foundation for Gender Studies [email protected]; [email protected] Friedrich-Weinbrenner-Str. 69 D-69126 Heidelberg, Germany Dr. Giovanna Covi, University of Trento Phone: +49 (0) 62 21 30 39 93 [email protected] Fax: +49 (0) 62 21 30 30 15 E-Mail: [email protected] Dr. Wangui wa Goro, London Metropolitan University http://www.stiftung-frauenforschung.de [email protected]

Launched in 1998 as a project of the Division Communica- Dr. Encarnación Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, tion and Cultural Practice of Women’s International Studies University of Hamburg Europe (WISE) [email protected]

Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, ISSN: 1570-0038, 1618-7628 University of Erlangen-Nürnberg [email protected]

Dr. Andrea Petõ, University of Miskolc, Hungary, Editorial Board and ELTE Ethnic and Minority Studies, Budapest [email protected] Managing Editors: Dr. Waltraud Dumont du Voitel, PD Dr. Ulla Wischermann, University of Frankfurt German Foundation for Gender Studies [email protected] [email protected]

Dr. Tobe Levin, University of Maryland in Europe and University of Frankfurt International Board of Contributing Editors [email protected] covers the following languages: Arabic: Monia Ainsworth. Bulgarian: Rumjana Ivanova-Kiefer. Dutch: renee hoog- land; Brigitte Bechtold. Finnish: Pirjo Ahokas. Flemish: Copy and Line Editor: Tobe Levin Magda Michielsens; Alison Woodward. French: Annie Dun- Proof-reader and Assistant Line Editor: bar; Alice Mills; Ailbhe Smyth; Bronwyn Winter. German: Rebecca Levin Marlen Bidwell-Steiner; Cathy Gelbin; Christine Matzke; Martina Stange; Christine Vogt-William; Susan Winnett. Greek: Gabriella Lazaridis. Hebrew: Mira Jenik; Tamar El-Or. Hungarian: Associate Editors: Katalin Koncz. Italian: Giulia Fabi. Latvian: Irina Novikova. Dr. Tomi Adeaga, State University of Maringá, Brazil Norwegian: Betty Bergland. Polish: Elżbieta Pakszys; Joanna [email protected] Regulska. Portuguese: Anne Cova. Russian: Irina Novikova. Serbo-Croatian: Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić. Spanish: PD Dr. Carmen Birkle, University of Mainz Maria del Pilar Cuder Dominguez, Montserrat Palau. Swedish: [email protected] Sara Goodman. Turkish: Murat Çemrek, Gönül Pultar, Meyda Yegenoglu. Dr. Paola Bono, University of Rome [email protected] Cover Design and Layout: Melanie Suggett

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007; Vol. 8, No 1, 2008 Table of Contents

Pre-Scripts

Welcome and Editorial 8 Tobe Levin and Waltraud Dumont du Voitel

(In)Particular: The German Feminist and Author: Alice 10 Schwarzer Preface to the Special Issue: Jeanette Clausen

Reviews of Books by Alice Schwarzer Jeanette Clausen. A Human Being Is Not a Program Review of Dünnebier, Anna and Gert von Paczensky. Das bewegte Leben der Alice Schwarzer. Die Biographie. [The Activist Life of Alice Schwarzer. The Biography]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1998; München: Knaur Taschenbuch, 1999, pp. 272. ISBN 978-3426774359. Elke Schmitter. trans. Jeanette Clausen. Coup de Grace for Petra Kelly Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Eine tödliche Liebe. Petra Kelly und Gert Bastian. [A Fatal Love: Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1993, pp. 189. ISBN 978-3462030402. Review originally appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 17 July 1993. Margrit Gerste. trans. Jeanette Clausen. Always Curious Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Marion Dönhoff. Ein widerständiges Leben. [Marion Dönhoff. A Resistant Life]. Köln: Kiepenheuer &Witsch, 1996, pp. 345. ISBN 978-3426622063. Review originally appeared in Die Zeit, No. 13, 1996. Elise Liebscher. trans. Jeanette Clausen. A Talent Is Also a Destiny Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Romy Schneider - Mythos und Leben. [Romy Schneider―Myth and Life]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1998, pp. 214. ISBN 978-3886985173. Review originally appeared in Berliner LeseZeichen, Issue 2/1999. © Edition Luisenstadt, 1999. www.luise.de. Kirsten Liese. trans. Jeanette Clausen. Schwarzer Sees the Difference Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Der große Unterscheid. Gegen die Spaltung von Menschen in Männer und Frauen. [The Big Difference. Against Splitting Human Beings into Men and Women]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2000, pp. 297. ISBN 978-3596152377. Review originally appeared in Die Welt, 23 December 2000. Ilse Nagelschmidt. trans. Jeanette Clausen. Women‟s History as It Was Lived. Alice Schwarzer Journalist and Woman Warrior Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Alice im Männerland. Eine Zwischenbilanz. [Alice in MrLand. An Interim Appraisal by Alice Schwarzer]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2002, pp. 368. ISBN 978-3462031430. Review originally appeared in Das Parlament, 3-10 March 2003. Franziska Sperr. trans. Amy Young. Machismo, Islamismo. Alice Schwarzer Reheats Old Essays from EMMA for a Volume on Jihad Fighters and Muslim Societies. Review of Schwarzer, Alice, ed. Die Gotteskrieger und die falsche Toleranz. [The Jihad Fighters and False Tolerance]. Köln: Kipenheuer & Witsch, 2002, pp. 208. ISBN 978-3462031058. Review originally appeared in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, 01 July 2002. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 3

Ruth Klüger. Trans. Jeanette Clausen. Prefeminist Girlhood Review of Schwarzer, Alice and Barbara Maia. Liebe Alice! Liebe Barbara! [Dear Alice! Dear Barbara!]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2005, pp. 240. ISBN 978-3453640191. Review originally appeared in Die Welt, 5 March 2005. Monika Moyrer.„Wiever alalf!‟ Women to the Fore! A Report on the FrauenMediaTurm (FMT). [Women’s Media Tower]. Cologne, based on a visit in January of 2007. Jeanette Clausen. Who Has the Answer? A Review Essay on Media Reception of Alice Schwarzer’s Die Antwort. [The Answer]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2007, pp. 208. ISBN 978- 3462037739. Waltraud Dumont du Voitel and Tobe Levin. Two New Publications by Alice Schwarzer: Brief Introduction Schwarzer, Alice. Simone de Beauvoir und Alice Schwarzer. Weggefährtinnen im Gespräch. Interviews 1972 – 1982. [Simone de Beauvoir and Alice Schwarzer: Comrades in Conversation. Interviews 1972―1982]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2007, pp. 121. ISBN 978-3462039563. Schwarzer, Alice, ed. Simone de Beauvoir. Ein Lesebuch mit Bildern. [Simone de Beauvoir. An Illustrated Reader]. Rowohlt Verlag: Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2008, pp. 334, ISBN 978-3498064.

Politics 30

From France Yvonne Guichard Claudic. trans. Tobe Levin. Bodily Constraint Review of Marquié, Hélène and Noël Burch, eds. Emancipation sexuelle ou contrainte des corps. [Sexual Emancipation or Bodily Constraint]. Paris: L’Harmattan, collection Bibliothèque du féminisme, 2006, pp. 178. ISBN 2- 296-00222-6. Review originally appeared in Bulletin de l‟ANEF Autumne 2006.75-79. Sandra Frey. trans. Tobe Levin. Physician, Architect, Attorney in France: Feminization of the Liberal Professions Review of Lapeyre, Nathalie. Les professions face aux enjeux de la féminisation. [Liberal Professions and Feminization.] Toulouse: Octarès. Collection Travail & Activité humaine, 2006, pp. 214. ISBN 978-2915346305. Review originally appeared in Bulletin de l‟ANEF Autumne 2006.64-74.

From Germany Birgit Blättel-Mink. trans. Tobe Levin. Women‟s Studies‟ Women: Inroads into Sociology Review of Vogel, Ulrike ed. Wege in die Soziologie und die Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung. Autobiographische Notizen der ersten Generation von Professorinnen an der Universität. [Approaches to Sociology of Gender and Women’s Studies. Autobiographical Sketches of Female University Professors―the First Generation]. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 2006, pp. 326. ISBN 10 3-531-14966-0. Lotte Habermann-Horstmeier. German Women Executives Overview of Habermann-Horstmeier, Lotte in co-operation with Kathrin Albrecht, Bettina Braun, Eva Ganter & Maria Thierer. Karrierehindernisse für Frauen in Führungspositionen. Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie an 300 Frauen aus dem deutschen Mittel- und Topmanagement. [German Women Executives in Middle and Top Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 4

Management. Report on the Glass Ceiling―Results of an Empirical Study of 300 Women Managers]. Schriftenreihe, Vol. I des Steinbeis Technologietransferzentrums (STZ) – Unternehmen & Führungskräfte, Villingen-Schwenningen, 2007, pp. 165, ISBN 978-3- 932824-12-8. Ruth Klüger. trans. Tobe Levin. What Women Are Writing Review of Loster-Schneider, Gudrun and Gaby Pailer, eds. Lexikon deutschsprachiger Epik und Dramatik von Autorinnen (1730 – 1900). [Dictionary of Women Authors of Epic and Drama in German (1730 – 1900)]. Tübingen, Basel: A. Francke Verlag, 2006, pp. 491, ISBN 978-3- 7720-8189-7 and 1 CD-Rom. Review originally appeared in Die literarische Welt, 6 January 2007, p. 7. Rolf Löchel. trans. Tobe Levin. The Avant-Garde‟s Avant-Garde: Hedwig Dohm Review of Rohner, Isabel and Nikola Müller, eds. Hedwig Dohm – Ausgewählte Texte. Ein Lesebuch zum Jubiläum des 175. Geburtstages mit Essays und Feuilletons, Novellen und Dialogen. Aphorismen und Briefen. [Hedwig Dohm―Selected Texts. A Reader to Celebrate the 175th Anniversary of Her Birth with Essays, Serials, Novellas, Dialogues, Aphorisms and Letters]. Berlin: Trafo Verlag, 2006, pp. 317, ISBN 3896265598. Originally published as „Vorkämpferin und Vordenkerin. Hedwig Dohm, Feministin der ersten Stunde, wird zum 175. Geburtstag Beschenkt“ in literaturkrititk.de No 9, September 2006. „Feminismus― Geburtstag. www.literaturkritik.de Susanne Rauscher. trans. Tobe Levin. Women, Music, Culture Review of Koldau, Linda Maria. Frauen–Musik –Kultur: ein Handbuch zum deutschen Sprachgebiet der frühen Neuzeit. [Women―Music―Culture: A Handbook on German-speaking Regions in the Renaissance]. Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2005, pp. 1188, ISBN 978-3-412-24505-4. Originally published as “Frauen – Musik – Kultur: ein Handbuch zum deutschen Sprachgebiet der frühen Neuzeit“ in Feministische Studien. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung/ No. 2/24, November 2006: 351-352. Heide Seele. trans. Tobe Levin. Prima Donna: Between Love and Madness Review of Gebhardt, Volker. Frauen in der Oper. Große Stimmen – große Rollen. [Women in Opera. Grand Voices―Grand Roles]. München: Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, pp. 224. ISBN 978-39380-45022. Originally published as „Primadonnen zwischen Liebe und Wahnsinn“ in Rhein- Neckar-Zeitung, 18 February 2007.

From Greece Christiana Lambrinidis. Introducing…The Centre for Creative Writing & Theatre for Conflict Resolution. «Η επινόηση τηρ γπαμματικήρ ή τηρ Αμστεπνταμ». An Overview. Christiana Lambrinidis. No Longer Asking Daddy Review of Stratigopoulou, Angeliki. Δεν θα ξαναπωτήσω τον μπαμπά. [I Will Ask Daddy No More]. Athens: Melani Editions, 2006.

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 5

From Hungary Katalin Koncz. Women in Politics―Hungary 1990 – 2006. An Overview with International Comparisons Summary of Koncz, Katalin. Nök a politikai hatalomban. Számvetés a rendszerváltástól napjainkig. [Women in Politics. From the Start of Regime Change to the Present]. Budapest: Magyar Nöi Karrierfejlesztési Szövetség. [Hungarian Association of Women’s Career Development], 2006, pp. 452. ISBN 978 963 06 1709 3. Andrea Petõ. trans. Tobe Levin. Principled Opposition Description of Petõ, Andrea. Geschlecht, Politik, und Stalinismus in Ungarn. Eine Biographie von Júlia Rajk. [Sex, Gender, Politics and Stalinism in Hungary: A Biography of Júlia Rajk]. Studien zur Geschichte Ungarns, Bd. 12. Herne: Gabriele Schäfer Verlag, 2007, pp. 214. ISBN 3-933337-43-7.

From Italy Claudia Vitale. A Different Difference: Nobel Laureate Elfriede Jelinek and a New Critical Anthology Review of Svandrlik, Rita, ed. Elfriede Jelinek: una prosa altra, un altro teatro. [Elfriede Jelinek: A Different Prose, a Different Theatre]. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-8453-725-6; 978-88-8453-726-3. Claudia Vitale. Women‟s Discursive Geographies Review of Borghi, Liana and Uta Treder, eds. Il globale e l‟intimo: luoghi del non ritorno. [The Global and the Private: Sites of No Return]. Perugia: Morlacchi, 2007, pp. 193. ISBN 978-88-6074-139-4. Claudia Vitale. Pink: Or How Things Haven‟t Yet Changed Much for Girls Review of Lipperini, Loredana. Ancora dalla parte delle bambine. [More Kudos to Little Girls]. Milano: Feltrinelli, 2007, pp. 285. ISBN 978-8807- 17139-0.

From Spain Marina Massaguer. Filling a Gap in Historical Knowledge: Women in the Catalanist Movement Review of Gonzàlez i Vilalta, Arnau. La irrupció de la dona en el catalanisme (1931-1936). [The Irruption of Women in Catalanism (1931-1936)]. Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat (Biblioteca Serra d’Or). Barcelona: 2006, pp. 246. ISBN 84-8415-855-1. Eva Virgili Recasens. Women and the Culture of Peace Review of Magallòn, Carmen. Mujeres en pie de paz. Pensamiento y practicas. [Women on the Peace Path. Thought and Praxis]. Madrid: Siglo XXI, 2006, pp. 297. ISBN 84-323-1244-4.

From Switzerland Ruth Klüger. trans. Tobe Levin. Migration―Aliens Asleep? Review of Stefan, Verena. Fremdschläfer. [Alien Sleeper]. Zürich: Ammann Verlag, www.ammann.ch, 2007, pp. 219, ISBN 978-3250601159. Review originally appeared in Die literarische Welt 06 October 2007.

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Publications on Literature 67

From Serbia Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić. Others‟ Speech: Creative Essays Review of (essays by) Đjurić, Dubravke. Govor druge. [Speech of Others]. Beograd: Rad, 2006. ISBN 86-09-00933-5. Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić. Female Characters of Antiquity Review of Slapšak, Svetlana. Ženske ikone antičkog sveta. [Female Icons of Antiquity]. Beograd: edition XX vek, 2006. ISBN 86-7562-047-0. Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić. John Updike‟s Novels Summary of Dojčinović-Nešić, Biljana. Kartograf modernog sveta: romani Džona Apdajka. [Modern World Cartographer: John Updike's Novels]. Beograd: Filološki fakultet, 2007. ISBN 978-86-86419-20-0.

Practical Use 69

Shortakes

Books received, Contributors’ and Translators’ Bios.

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 7

Pre-Scripts more of value that could have been influential as well. Guest editor Jeanette Clausen, in her Welcome and Editorial Preface, fleshes out this portrait of an

Tobe Levin and energetic, highly productive, incisively Waltraud Dumont du Voitel articulate German feminist and introduces the English-speaking reader to many of Costumes of the soul, books in a Schwarzer‘s best known books. We are myriad of shapes and sizes find their place pleased to pay tribute to such a remarkable in Feminist Europa. Review of Books. woman, activist and author, who has also To share the old continent‘s new received Germany‘s highest medal of hon- communications, Feminist Europa. Review or in recognition of four decades of dedica- of Books now brings you the latest issue tion to women‘s human rights and feminist devoted to women‘s and gender studies in communication. We are equally indebted languages other than English. Whereas to Professor Clausen for brilliant editorial most review journals are marketed mainly choices, translations and presentation. She in national languages, at best offering a has provided feminist academics with an skimpy English abstract, our reviews ease unparalleled service. access to research otherwise hidden in a But beyond the special focus, we foreign idiom and thereby help authors continue Feminist Europa. Review of meet. Books‟s expected features. Under Politics, The fact that Feminist Europa. Re- for instance, we highlight two books pub- view of Books is published in English ac- lished in French, followed by accounts of knowledges globalization‘s need for a lin- six in German. These cover fields as di- gua franca. But it also challenges language verse as sociology, women in business, barriers. In women‘s studies, academia in- German literature and Hedwig Dohm―in a sists on looking beyond national borders. tribute to the 175th birthday of Germany‘s Sadly, however, those born to English, though pioneering nineteenth century advocate for admitting a need to broaden horizons, often women‘s rights (The Avant-Garde‟s Avant miss what frankly shouldn‘t be left out of Garde: Hedwig Dohm). Here we are espe- feminism‘s bibliography. cially keen to acknowledge the reviewer‘s For a key example, take our target biological persuasion: Dohm‘s reader is in this issue, a feminist famous on the con- one of the rare men to be welcomed on our tinent but little known in the English- pages. speaking world, author Alice Schwarzer, Female reviewers continue broa- whose books, articles, editorial work, pub- dening the range of subjects you‘ll find lic appearances, and erstwhile tv talk show here, for instance, gender and opera, or have made her a household word. For thir- creative writing as it emerged from the ty years she was editor-in-chief of EMMA Center for Creative Writing and Conflict (not unlike the U.S. Ms.), a journal she Resolution in Greece, a project headed by launched in 1977 with money brought in Christiana Lambrinidis whose contribution by her best-selling The Little Difference pioneers a suggestive style never in our and its Major Consequences. Schwarzer‘s repertoire before. Writing on books pub- friendship with Simone de Beauvoir, about lished in Italian, Claudia Vitale reviews whom she has also written, brought her three, including Elfriede Jelinek: A Differ- into view of English-speaking audiences ent Prose, a Different Theatre and The with a translation of the Beauvoir biogra- Global and the Private: Site of No Return phy. But Schwarzer has published so much as well as More Kudos to Little Girls. Two important pieces on books from Spain also

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 8 appear: on Women in the Catalanist Move- over-praised. And with this idealism in ment, a study that fills an important know- mind, we are especially pleased to wel- ledge gap; and Carmen Magallòn‘s Women come two new talents to our associate edi- on the Peace Path. Thought and Praxis. tors‘ board, Professors Tomi Adeaga und Ruth Klüger returns us to German-lan- Wangui wa Goro whose biographies you guage texts, looking at the latest work by will find in the Notes on Contributors sec- Swiss radical feminist Verena Stefan, Alien tion. Sleeper. So much for Western Europe. For *Another unique aspect of Feminist Euro- the appearance in our in-box of Eastern pa. Review of Books is that, though dedi- European books we are always grateful. In cated to work published in languages other this issue two Hungarian authors appear. than English, we have always made an Katalin Koncz and Andrea Petỡ highlight exception for the English language scho- the political dimension in gender studies, larship of members in Women‘s Interna- analyzing ‚women‘s place‘ from regime tional Studies Europe (WISE). For that change in Hungary to the present day. In reason we are celebrating here the 2008 Petỡ‘s biography of Júlia Rajk, Stalinist publication of dictatorship as it affected women is also Violence: „Mercurial Gestalt‟ described. Edited by Tobe Levin. Amsterdam; Rodo- Our rubric Publications on litera- pi, 2008 in the series At the Interface/ ture continues politically, revealing a sig- Probing the Boundaries 32. nificant influence on East European reception of popular Western, often U.S., au- ―One afternoon, a patient who had been in thors. Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić of Serbia three times weekly psychoanalytic psycho- has provided three reviews that do this, therapy with me left my office after her looking at Dubravke Ðjurić‘s Govor drug, session, drove down to the train tracks half Svetlana Slapšak‘s Female Icons of Antiq- a mile from my office, and sat down facing uity and Biljana‘s own study of John Up- an oncoming train.‖ This tragic event dike‟s Novels. And here an editorial policy opens the essay by psychoanalyst Susanne reminder: since 1998 when we began to Chassey, who explores the relationship serve the European feminist community, between private and political terrorism. we have broken with a reviewing taboo Her viewpoint complements analyses of against ‗conflict of interest‘. That is, we violence―that ‗mercurial gestalt‘―by other permit and even encourage authors writing contributors to this collection derived from in minority languages to self-present if the a 2003 Cultures of Violence conference alternative would be keeping their work in held at St. Catherine‘s College, Oxford, the closet.* organized by Inter-disciplinary Net. From The Shortakes section, quite open fields as diverse as philosophy, sociology, to this lenient approach, also adds nations psychology, history, political science, lite- otherwise not represented. In this issue, we rary criticism, and forensics, authors con- count Bulgaria and Israel as well as more sider, for instance, hostility to European news from France, Germany, and Serbia. minorities; military training and torture; Finally, Books Received merely hints at the ‗endemic violence‘ aesthetically rec- the flood of knowledge pouring out of Eu- orded by Haitian novelists; child abuse in ropean pc‘s, only a fraction of which can film; female genital mutilation (FGM) in satisfy English-speakers‘ thirst for a range fiction; and the massacre of Koreans dur- of views. ing the 1923 Japanese earthquake. Vi- Very special thanks go to guest edi- olence in contact zones in Northern Ireland tor Jeanette Clausen as well as to everyone and in the memory of South African mu- who writes for us. Your pro bono contribu- seum directors trying to comply with Truth tions to this non-profit project cannot be Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 9 and Reconciliation Commission mandates (In)Particular: The German are also objects of scrutiny here. Finally, Feminist and Author the volume probes that vexed, primordial Alice Schwarzer issue of violence―nature or nurture?

CALL for Reviews Readers familiar with Feminist Europa. Review of Books may find something missing which has been part of every issue since our launch. This time there is no coverage of books on female genital mutilation. Why? Because we plan to devote the entire coming issue to that subject which will also include a retrospective of everything that has already appeared in our pages plus reviews of books in English. In other words, our ambition is to present a solid overview of the literature on this subject in a way which has not been done before, in part because, on the one hand, we are among the few well situated to deal with the multitude of languages in which engaged literature is being written, and on the other, we act on the borderline between Who Is Alice Schwarzer? activism and scholarship, many of our edi- And What Has She Done tors proudly both, activist-scholars whose main concern is to spare girls from the Lately? blade. So please bring all books on this Jeanette Clausen subject to our attention, no matter where or when they were published, in Africa, of Preface to the Special Issue course, as well as in Europe or the U.S.A. Reviews and reviewers are sought. The name Alice Schwarzer has become synonymous with feminism in Germany's mainstream media—that is, with feminism as it is popularly defined and, often enough, misunderstood. She needs no introduction to those of us who followed her career from the abortion rights rallies of the early 1970s through the first issue of EMMA in 1977, her passionate anti-pornography campaign PorNO in the 1980s, her participation in countless debates with other journalists and public figures, and her seemingly endless stream of publications. Probably many women of my generation still have their copies (as I do) of The “Little Difference” and Its Big Conse- quences. Women on the Subject of Them- selves [Der ―kleine Unterschied‖ und seine großen Folgen. Frauen über sich, S. Fischer 1975] and remember the rush of recognition Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 10

(known as a ―click‖ among American femi- bout other remarkable individuals are re- nists in the 1970s) that came with reading viewed below: Eine tödliche Liebe [A Fatal the women‘s interviews, protocols, and con- Love, 1993], her response to media coverage fessional literature that proliferated at the of the deaths of the Green political figures time. Gert Bastian and Petra Kelly; her sympathetic yet critical portrait of actress Romy Schneider (1998); and her 1996 biography of Marion Dönhoff, a founding member of and long-time contributor to the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. The understanding and insight with which she writes about these people whom she knew and admired is a dimension not as readily apparent in her collections of essays assembled and repub- lished for purposes of periodically taking stock and summing up. Three such books are reviewed below: Der große Unterschied [The Big Dif- ference, 2000], Alice im Männerland [Alice in MrLand, 2002], and Die Gotteskrieger

und die falsche Toleranz [The Jihad Warri- But Alice Schwarzer also deserves to ors and False Tolerance, 2002]. Still another be better understood by younger generations facet of Alice Schwarzer is evident in Liebe of feminists and more widely recognized Alice, Liebe Barbara [Dear Alice, Dear Bar- beyond German-speaking countries. That is bara, 2005], based on letters between two the purpose of this special focus: to high- friends catching up with each other after light achievements and selected works by many years—and having a wonderful time this now iconic figure to provide a more doing it. The special focus concludes with accurate and complex picture. The impact of an account of a research visit to the her work as an activist who planned, organ- FrauenMediaTurm by American feminist ized, and led feminist actions and projects Germanist Monika Moyrer and a review es- over several decades should be assessed. say on the reception of Schwarzer's latest The book Das bewegte Leben der Alice book Die Antwort [The Answer, 2007]. Schwarzer [The Activist Life of Alice Like so many of us, Alice Schwarzer Schwarzer, 1998], reviewed below, provides is a bundle of so-called contradictions (does a starting point for understanding her drive, anyone really believe that consistency is a creativity, and commitment. Other texts in- human trait?). She is seemingly selfless in cluded here afford glimpses of her recent her pursuit of causes she believes in, yet also activities—you can count on it, she's been self-promoting as she repackages, reedits, busy! and republishes her earlier writings. She is The range of Schwarzer's published courageous, even fearless in speaking up work also merits wider attention. Few of her about unpopular causes and in facing critics, books have been translated into other lan- yet unyielding when contradicted and re- guages and only one, a homage to her friend sentful of would-be allies (especially wom- and intellectual mentor Simone de Beauvoir, en) who do not express their support pub- has been translated into English: Simone de licly. She has a knack for memorable Beauvoir Today: Conversations, 1972-82. phrases and pithy commentary but also Trans. Marianne Howarth. London, 1984 writes with insight and sensitivity about (American imprint: After the Second Sex. women from very different walks of life. Conversations with Simone de Beauvoir. She calls things as she sees them, yet often New York, 1984). Several of her books a- stops short of analysis that is worthy of her Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 11 gifts. She has been criticized for insufficient Peinlichkeiten‖ [Two Decades of Embar- attention to women in eastern Germany (the rassing Situations], were authored by Gert former German Democratic Republic), a gap von Paczenksy, founder of the TV-magazine that is all the more disappointing given ―Panorama.‖ Photographs from five decades Schwarzer's long-standing friendship with of Schwarzer‘s life help readers keep track the uniquely talented GDR writer Irmtraud of some of the major personalities. An ap- Morgner (d. 1990). A word often used to de- pendix contains a chronology of Schwar- scribe Schwarzer's statements is ―sweeping‖ zer‘s life up to the founding of EMMA in (pauschal). Some criticize her work for be- 1977 and lists publications, major initiatives ing insufficiently nuanced. In fact, her critics and awards through 1998. An index of per- are often inspired to articulate a more nu- sons concludes the book. anced analysis themselves, surely a desirable outcome. Could it be that those ―sweeping‖ statements are a tactic rather than a short- coming? It is hoped that this special focus will inspire many questions for further study of Alice Schwarzer and her work.

Congratulations to Alice Schwarzer, winner of the 2008 Ludwig-Börne-Prize.

Reviews of Books by Alice Schwarzer

A Human Being Is Not a

Program Early chapters present ―defining mo- Jeanette Clausen ments‖ in Schwarzer‘s life. Born to an un-

Review of Dünnebier, Anna and Gert von married mother and raised by impecunious, Paczensky. Das bewegte Leben der Alice left-leaning grandparents who gave her Schwarzer. Die Biographie. [The Activist much freedom, she had a childhood that, at Life of Alice Schwarzer. The Biography]. least in retrospect, qualifies as ―good prepa- Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1998; Mün- ration for a rebellious life‖ (p. 11). Essen- chen: Knaur Taschenbuch, 1999, pp. 272. tially self-supporting after age 16, she ISBN 978-3426774359. drifted through apprenticeships and office jobs before deciding, at age 21, to seek a This is an unabashedly partisan book, career in journalism. After a year in Paris written by two of Alice Schwarzer‘s long- studying French and broadening her political time friends. The authors make clear in the horizons, Schwarzer secured a traineeship preface that they will counter the image of with the Düsseldorfer Nachrichten, where Schwarzer as a ―verkniffene Emanze‖ [nar- she earned respect for her energetic, innova- row-minded women‘s libber]: ―We know tive reporting and also a couple of repri- the participants, we know better. Shouldn‘t mands for caustically critical articles about their story be told for once?‖ (p. 7). prominent public figures. She later worked The book is in two parts. Anna Dünne- briefly for Frau und Film [Woman and bier, a television journalist who created a Film] and the satirical magazine Pardon be- portrait of Schwarzer for the German TV fore returning to Paris as a free-lance politi- channel ARD in 1980, authored Part I [The cal correspondent. Biography], except for three brief chapters The years in Paris (1970-74) were deci- focused on specific controversies. Those sive for Schwarzer‘s career. She wrote to three chapters and Part II, ―Zwei Jahrzehnte support herself and began studying at the Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 12

Faculté de Vincennes/Paris, where students licized scandals and controversies, among could be accepted without an Abitur [High them ―Der Aufstand der 32‖ [The Uprising School Examination]. She became active in of the 32], as reported here, a trumped-up the French women‘s movement and met internal dispute over Schwarzer‘s leadership many well-known feminists, among them style that was ―leaked‖ to the public; ―Lärm Monique Wittig and Simone de Beauvoir. aus der Baracke‖ [Noise from the Barracks], Profession and activism soon converged: another trumped-up charge, this time an ―She was one of the dozen hard core mem- accusation by the SPD press service that bers of the MLF [French women‘s move- Schwarzer had advocated an election boy- ment, Mouvement de libération des cott; and the ―Stern-Prozess‖ [Stern Trial], femmes]—but at the same time she was in which Schwarzer sued the magazine Stern ‗outside‘ . . . . She organized the same ac- because of its sexy cover photos. tions that she later wrote about, normally a The suit was dismissed, but according taboo‖ (p. 67). Having participated in the to von Paczensky, the court was sympathetic French campaign against the ban on abor- to Schwarzer‘s position. tion, she was inspired to organize a similar More disquieting are controversies sur- action in Germany, ―Ich habe abgetrieben‖ rounding Schwarzer‘s standpoint on Islamic [I have had an abortion]. Reported in the fundamentalism, for which she has been mainstream magazine Stern in 1971, this much criticized. A prominent example was action is credited with launching the second- the publication in EMMA (July/August 1993) wave women‘s movement in Germany. of a dossier titled ―Fundamentalism‖ that Many chapters and episodes make ex- began with the words ―Fanatics and funda- citing reading. Schwarzer‘s creativity in the mentalists kill in the name of their truth and face of obstacles is admirable. With no their arrogance‖ (p. 227). The ―Mediawatch‖ prospect of funding to start a magazine on office of the Heinrich-Böll Foundation re- the model of Gloria Steinem‘s Ms, she had sponded, accusing EMMA of racism. Anti- the genial idea to begin on a smaller scale; racist feminists in Germany and elsewhere the result was the first Frauenkalender were also critical of Schwarzer and EMMA [women‘s calendar] in 1975, which turned a for evading difficult questions about Ger- sizable profit; in the same year The Little manness, race, and responsibility (e.g., Sara Difference became a runaway best-seller, Lennox, German Studies Review XVII, 3 with earnings that brought plans for the [October 1995], pp. 481-502). Von Paczen- magazine closer to reality. The chapter sky defends Schwarzer‘s position, but the ―EMMA—Eine schwere Geburt‖ [EMMA— reader longs for a voice that looks critically A Difficult Birth] reviews Schwarzer‘s at all sides in this debate—not to try to force clashes with the Berlin founders of a rival Schwarzer into a politically correct stance, feminist magazine Courage and her nearly but to take the accusations and her responses disastrous attempts to run the magazine‘s seriously. staff as a ―collective,‖ with the inevitable contradictions of a project based on identity politics: EMMA was supposed to be better than all other magazines, yet also publish whatever women wrote (p. 130). Through- out, we see Schwarzer as the guiding force and also the one who does most of the work. Her commitment was and is unmatched— but one wonders what EMMA would be like had she been more inclined to share power, decision-making, and editorial control. The chapters by Gert von Paczensky give background on a number of much-pub- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 13

Coup de Grace for Petra Kelly theories of all stripes had been constructed and discussed for several days, clarity about Elke Schmitter the actual, intimate course of events was quick to come. ―In the judgment of the Trans. Jeanette Clausen prosecuting attorney, it is established that Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Eine tödliche the fatal shots were fired by Gert Bastian. Liebe. Petra Kelly und Gert Bastian. [A He killed Petra Kelly, who was lying in bed, Fatal Love: Petra Kelly and Gert Batian]. with a point-blank shot to the temple from Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1993, pp. his Derringer pistol. He then took his own 189. ISBN 978-3462030402. Review origi- life with a shot to the crown of his head.‖ nally appeared in the Frankfurter Allge- These are the events. But they are reported meine Zeitung, 17 July 1993. as a ―double suicide.‖ The public prosecutor also testified that ―the absence of a farewell Alice Schwarzer‘s book about the letter is no reason to doubt the suicide of the Bastian/Kelly case poses the decisive ques- two former members of the German Parlia- tion: Why did the public accept the ―double ment.‖ suicide‖ hypothesis so readily? For it was His interpretation is widely shared. murder. The Greens as well as the general public Napoleon is credited—probably er- quickly reached consensus on this imagina- roneously—with a frank definition of his- tive reconstruction, almost without opposi- tory: It is ―a lie agreed upon by historians.‖ tion. Statements are circulated in which Bas- Long before this ideology was invented, tian laments the disintegration of the rela- historians had understood it thus, and, ever tionship. Friends confirm the ―total exhaus- since, not only have events come thick and tion‖ of their Green political colleague and fast, but also justifications. Only a few are her dependence on Bastian‘s care, her state- privileged to take a long look, with presence ment that she ―can no longer live‖ without of mind, into the ideology production site him. (Department of Tranquilizers and Sedatives) Schwarzer sums up the falsification and return unanaesthetized with a list of of a murder as double suicide: It is not only instructions in hand. Alice Schwarzer has the public prosecutor for whom ―Kelly‘s achieved this. often repeated statement ‗I can no longer live without Gert‘ becomes identical with ‗Please kill me‘.‖ Since Schwarzer‘s book is not only larded with references to the dialectical relationship of the political and the personal (now fallen into oblivion) but also concludes with a confession, the reviewer must of course make public her own self-criticism: Only through Schwarzer‘s offensive action did this reviewer become aware that she had unwittingly endorsed the prevailing opinion, that she too had spontaneously spoken of ―double suicide,‖ and she too found herself more susceptible to the tragic-romantic ver- 1 sion à la Kleist than to the plain fact: man Schwarzer has examined, from the kills woman. perspective of a feminist journalist, the Kelly/ Bastian deaths, which took place on 1 Octo- 1 Heinrich von Kleist, 1777-1811, German dramatist ber 1992 and remained undiscovered until and poet, who killed himself and a woman compan- th the 19 of that month. After persecution ion in a supposed suicide pact. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 14

The fact that the woman was a paci- ble‖; DIE ZEIT [weekly newspaper], which fist and an outspoken feminist, that the man rather reluctantly concedes: ―Even if he is was a retired general and eloquent pacifist, said to have shot her without an agreement that he was a father figure while she, despite of mutual suicide… who dares to condemn a her tenacious energy, was perceived as frag- Gert Bastian, who steered Petra Kelly like ile and girlish, that for both of them, private an invalid through her last years.‖ Schwar- life merged with the political in ways that zer acknowledges that all-inclusive motifs, were hardly beneficial—all these antago- such as piety for example, may have a nisms and spectacularly obvious facts had, if euphemistic effect. But: ―Let‘s take a mo- anything, a surprisingly muting effect. Schwarzer ment to imagine the drama the other way calls the mainstream press ―strikingly differ- around: After a twelve-year relationship, entiated.‖ I recall moments of unaccustomed Petra Kelly shoots Gert Bastian in his sleep stiffness at staff meetings of the taz [Ta- and then kills herself. How would his fam- geszeitung (Daily Newspaper) in Berlin] as ily have reacted? His friends? The retired well as half- or fully articulated fears of suc- military officers and the new politicians? cumbing to the morbid fascination of this The public? Would murderess Kelly have case: the couple‘s death was something like been able to count on the same sympathy as a spy in the political editor‘s office—the murderer Bastian?‖ world spirit wafts across one, it is touching Some telling questions have obvious and one feels important. Presumably to ward answers. Schwarzer has asked those ques- off these yellow-press urges, the serious tions and therein lies the significance of her media behaved discreetly on the whole— book. Her psychological description of the and in their flight to the civic front lapsed Kelly/Bastian relationship and its link to into gooey romantization, which in this case sociological and historical considerations is was not exaggeration but a lie. simplified rather than subtle, and the hand of It is not Alice Schwarzer‘s concern an attentive editor would have done no to serve up a new reconstruction of the harm. But compared to the challenge she case—though she begins her book with an poses with her book, these are trivialities. abridged version that demonstrates her talent One who wants to correct history before it as a short-crime-story-teller. She wants to has been consecrated for eternity must be find the truth not by augmentation but reduc- fast and effective. Schwarzer against Napo- tion. Michelangelo (to cite a second great leon: one to zero for the lady. man) supposedly once said that sculpture is very simple: ―You take a stone and chip Always Curious everything away that doesn‘t look like the model.‖ That is what Schwarzer does and Margrit Gerste the result justifies her method. Page after page she dismantles the legends that have Trans. Jeanette Clausen developed around the deaths of these two Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Marion people. Impartially but relentlessly she cites Dönhoff. Ein widerständiges Leben. those who were quick to contribute to the [Marion Dönhoff. A Resistant Life]. Grand Opera Libretto: the Green Party, Köln: Kiepenheuer &Witsch, 1996, 345. which staged a common funeral service for ISBN 978-3-426622063. Review originally victim and perpetrator; the [news magazine] appeared in DIE ZEIT, No. 13, 1996. Der Spiegel with its court psychiatrist testi- mony in which the murder was interpreted What good luck that she was never as a last act of love; Pastor Zink at the interested in women‘s stuff and in 1945, graveside, for whom Kelly, ―this vivacious immediately after her flight from East Prus- woman,‖ has ―gone to her death‖; psycho- sia, chose to write ―two rather long memo- analyst Horst Eberhard Richter, who exhorts randa‖ to the British occupying power in- us to show ―respect for the incomprehensi- stead of helping to stir the barley soup. It Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 15 was the beginning of a wonderful friendship, ven of, where she got the courage for resis- for the memoranda by Marion Countess tance and the strength to take responsibility. Dönhoff did not land on the desk of a British What are the roots of this sensitive rational- general, but fell into the lap of the newly ity, this sensible presumptuousness, this founded paper DIE ZEIT. high-minded modesty?‖ That would explain the origin of her Marion Dönhoff says yes. She trusts beautiful relationship with this paper. But and respects her intelligent colleague. Thus how did the Countess and Alice Schwarzer begins a—shall we say tension-filled—col- meet? It was in 1987 that EMMA-editor laboration between the two unlike women, Schwarzer asked her great role model ―a year of affection and anger, of under- (―without this single female name in the first standing and falling silent,‖ in the biogra- ranks of political journalism I would proba- pher‘s words. bly not have been able to imagine myself as In conversations with the Count‘s a future journalist‖) for an interview. So the large family clan, with the family of DIE Countess, always curious, dropped in at the ZEIT, with friends of both genders and with feminist studio in Cologne—―you have a protégés, the experienced journalist tries to nice place here‖—and a portrait was pub- get close to her subject. For example, Rich- lished with the apt title ―The Chieftain‖ [der ard von Weizsäcker [long-time CDU mem- Häuptling]. ―Truthfully,‖ Dönhoff2 wrote to ber of the German parliament and President Schwarzer later, ―no member of my family of Germany 1984-94, trans. note] answers a has ever been portrayed with such kindness question about the role played by Marion and with such an investment in research and Dönhoff within the circle of like-minded precision—the fact that it is about me colleagues: ―She was the ringleader of us touches me most deeply. For actually, I do younger ones—though we were actually not not deserve that much consideration—least so young any more; we had after all borne of all in the house of feminism.‖ And why responsibility during the war. But she was not? the one who asked: What are your plans now? What do you intend to do? That was no different in 1945 than in 1995.‖ Or her favorite nephew Hermann Harzfeldt (the countess helped to bring up the orphaned child, who as an adult was her confidant and traveling companion for many years) comments wittily about his part: ―I had the role of the wife, so to speak.‖ Among the most important sources are books by the Countess herself, such as Childhood in East Prussia [Kindheit in Ostpreußen] and the moving volume For the Sake of Honor [Um der Ehre willen], about her murdered friends of the 20th of July, 1944 [failed attempt on Hitler‘s life, trans. note]. Alice Schwarzer ends the biography

In any case, Alice Schwarzer plucks with a collection of Marion Dönhoff‘s arti- up her courage a few years later and makes cles under the title ―Democracy and Respon- the Countess an offer. The offer to write her sibility‖ that make clear what has always biography. Schwarzer, herself a woman who moved her—and does today more than ever. bursts all bonds of convention, wants to un- Is your curiosity aroused? Rightly so. derstand ―what [Dönhoff‘s] material is wo-

2 She died in 2002. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 16

A Talent Is Also a Destiny whore, which began with her ―Sissi‖ image [in the eponymous 1955 film, with sequels Elise Liebscher in 1956 and 1957, trans. note], from which she fled to France and Alain Delon, and con- Trans. Jeanette Clausen tinued more or less throughout her ―good‖ Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Romy films, including the last one, La Passante du Schneider ― Mythos und Leben. [Romy Sans-Souci [The Passerby, 1982]. Schneider―Myth and Life]. Köln: Kie- In her first chapter, Alice Schwarzer penheuer & Witsch, 1998, pp. 214. ISBN describes an October 1974 appearance by 978-3886985173. Review originally ap- Romy Schneider on German television, an peared in BerlinerLeseZeichen, Issue 2/ event that in her opinion reveals all of Romy 1999. © Edition Luisenstadt, 1999. Schneider‘s sensitive and fastidious qualities as well as their inherent potential for con- Thanks to Luisenstädter Bildungsverein e.V., flict. It is a good chapter, intelligently or- www.luise-berlin.de for this review. chestrated. Those who liked Romy Schnei- Romy Schneider would have turned der and wish to read a description of a daz- sixty in 1998, the year Alice Schwarzer‘s zling and glamorous life can close the book book was published. She died of cardiac here and hold on to their pleasant illusions. arrest in 1982 at age 43. In her opinion, none of the 59 films she made was really out- standing; ten of them she considered good. Alice Schwarzer concurs with her appraisal, though not without repeatedly recalling the actress‘s enormous talent, passionate dedica- tion to work, obsessiveness and sensitive creative ability. It is a harsh evaluation. In passing, Schwarzer compares (West) Ger- man film to Italian, English, and American film of the second half of the 1950s but does not return to the topic later, not even in connection with the art of French cinema, in which Romy Schneider‘s second, actual career was realized in films by Claude Sautet. That oversight — considering Alice Schwarzer‘s sense of social criticism, which Alice Schwarzer researched Romy‘s determines her view of Romy Schneider‘s life in the usual ways. Her own meetings biography—is noteworthy in that the ques- and conversations with her are important tion of significant female figures in out- sources for her views and appraisal. Even standing films of the Western world is thus more important are quotations from Romy omitted from consideration in shaping the Schneider‘s letters and diary entries re- portrait. For no one knows better than Alice cording the dreams and desires of her early Schwarzer how inadequate conditions were years, illnesses she suffered as a young girl for creating truly great women‘s stories of in a strict Catholic boarding school, mo- the sort that Romy ardently wished for in her ments of exuberant happiness and inner tur- more mature years. moil, constant battles for inner freedom, and The ultimate, tragic conclusion defeats. These show Romy to be a sensitive reached by the author, who expresses great observer of herself and her environment. sympathy, empathy, and admiration for the The image that Schwarzer creates of Romy, actress, is that in all her roles, Romy the image of an insecure woman tortured by Schneider personified male fantasies of fears and self-doubts who was always an woman‘s hybrid nature, the saint and the object of male exploitation both at work and Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 17 in her private life, would surely have been Schwarzer Sees the Difference vehemently denied, were it not confirmed by Romy‘s diaries. Kirsten Liese All the conflicts she could not re- Trans. Jeanette Clausen solve with her tormentor of the moment, be that her stepfather Hans-Herbert Blatzheim, Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Der große husbands Harry Meyen and Daniel Biasini, Unterschied. Gegen die Spaltung von Men- be it Luchino Visconti or Heinrich Böll, by schen in Männer und Frauen. [The Big whom she felt misunderstood, or conflicts Difference. Against the Splitting of Hu- with herself―all these she dealt with spirit- man Beings into Men and Women]. Köln: edly and passionately, also with wit and ex- Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2000, pp. 297, pp. cess, by writing. 297. ISBN 978-3596152377. Review origi- Schwarzer the journalist testifies to nally appeared in Die Welt, 23 December Romy‘s writing talent. She acknowledges 2000. the covert criticism with which Romy reacts, for example, to her parents‘ closeness to Actually, there is no difference at all. Nazi bigwigs by her film portrayals of Jew- Men and women originate from one gender ish women‘s destinies and by giving her with two shapes. This is the finding of Alice children Jewish names. She also discovers Schwarzer‘s new book. She goes on to say Romy Schneider‘s belated reactions to that the ―big‖ difference lies only in the sig- women‘s struggle for emancipation and her nificance we attach to gender, and demands dogged, though ―blind,‖ search for an egali- that traditional role assignments finally be tarian partner relationship. She describes abolished. Romy‘s addiction to pills and alcohol under the influence of her partners Delon and Meyen. With all due respect for her strug- gles, ―vacillating between subjugation and tyranny,‖ she concludes in the end that it was Romy‘s ―half-heartedness‖ that ―prevented her from taking the last step, which is so urgently necessary for highest quality.‖ The statement may be true, but is it also justified? If meant as quintessence, it seems somewhat small-minded. Schwarzer‘s biography itself contra- dicts the statement. As described by Schwarzer, Romy Schneider‘s life appears as a prime example of unscrupulous male society‘s degrading, almost murderous approach to women‘s life expectations and That position is scarcely different vitality. Romy Schneider represents the from the slogans with which the famous type of woman who endures this destiny feminist declared war on men in her notori- more or less knowingly, who lacks the heart ous ―Little Difference‖ in 1977. ―It is not for permanent combat. Such battles require penis and uterus that make us into men and life-long action. Romy Schneider, accord- women, but power and powerlessness,‖ the ing to Alice Schwarzer, could muster a editor of EMMA wrote at the time. But then, fighting spirit only partially. She had talent, many theses seemed more dogmatic in those which is also a destiny, and wanted to make days. Women were basically victims, men the most of it. What choice did she really were perpetrators; women were slaves, men have? And what, in reality, might the their masters. Therefore she accorded het- ―highest quality‖ prize have been? erosexuality no chance: ―Two-thirds of all Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 18 women [are] . . . acutely or occasionally from female politicians or journalists who ‗frigid‘,‖ she wrote once. Today she would claim to share her views and priorities com- probably find few women who would de- pletely—but express the opposite within the fend her conviction that feminism is the the- circle of their male party colleagues or su- ory, lesbianism the practice. pervisors. It would be an injustice to the ―Big A central theme of the ―Big Differ- Difference‖ to dismiss it as a remake of the ence‖ is sexuality. Alice Schwarzer can doc- ―Little Difference.‖ Rather, Alice Schwarzer ument that, according to the 2000 UN re- takes stock of feminism in the past 25 years, port, one of two women is a victim of sexual profoundly and with an agreeable touch of violence. She acknowledges progress—a irony. Has women‘s situation improved? greater degree of public sensitivity, at least The result is up and down. She reports suc- with regard to the sexual abuse of chil- cesses, especially in the world of work. For dren—but finds that there is still too little example, in Germany today [2000], almost attention to violence against women, as if as many women (43%) as men are gainfully such assaults left no physical or psychic in- employed, leading to the conclusion ―that juries as a result. It appears that feminism the family, 30 years ago still the stronghold has so far been ineffective against sexual of fulfillment for every ‗real‘ woman, is no violence. Of course Alice Schwarzer cannot longer a calling, but only a part of life.‖ eliminate all evils from the world. But she Things have changed, especially in branches creates an awareness that much remains to ―which were long closed to women.‖ be done by feminists of the 21st century. Nowadays there is no lack of possibilities and role models, from the president of the Women’s History as It Was court to the party chairperson. Far be it from Alice Schwarzer to Lived. Alice Schwarzer, claim that it is now the norm for women to Journalist and Woman Warrior. hold prominent positions, although it‘s ex- Ilse Nagelschmidt actly this type of token woman that men point out when it‘s time to put the brakes on Trans. Jeanette Clausen women‘s emancipation, under the motto: Why do we need a quota when the women Review of Schwarzer, Alice. Alice im are already involved everywhere? She does Männerland. Eine Zwischenbilanz. [Alice not fall for such games. She is perhaps the in MrLand. An Interim Appraisal by last woman warrior, even when presenting Alice Schwarzer]. Köln: Kiepenheuer & her more moderate side. Without making it Witsch, 2002, pp. 368. ISBN 978-346-203 black and white, she points to the price that 1430. Review originally appeared in Das many women still have to pay for their pro- Parlament, 3-10 March 2003. fessional career, such as mobbing and sexual ―Alice im Männerland‖―the very harassment. title evokes the most diverse associations. But women get their just due also. ―A In light of the famous ―Wonderland‖ and feminist will rarely doubt men, but often Alice‘s voyages of discovery, the intended women,‖ the author sighs. Why? Because paradigm is easily recognized. In this book, when things get serious, many women which contains texts published between would rather complain than act. She is es- 1971 and 2001, Alice Schwarzer presents pecially critical of the fact that her sisters her very personal ―interim appraisal.‖ Thirty still do not have solidarity among them- years of the women‘s movement in the Fed- selves and that many women expect advan- eral Republic of Germany are on the one tages from currying favor with men, then hand thirty years of actively wrestling with toss their own ideals overboard and stab the structures of a patriarchal society, and on other women in the back. Alice Schwarzer the other hand thirty years of steady advance tells about the many letters she received Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 19 into areas that were often not taken up until cal orientation. These female experiences years later by female or male politicians. have, with few exceptions, been cut out. The transformations and upheavals Thus―and I regret this most deeply for a are gripping to read about from today‘s per- book published in 2002―only one part of spective. While at the start [of the women‘s female history and female tradition of the movement] debate focused especially on the Federal Republic is reflected. integrity of the female body and thus on the Despite these limitations the book is right to abortion, topics such as sexuality recommended for all who are interested in and identity, work and love, and (sexual) lasting change and in investigating life pat- violence against women have dominated terns that continue to be ascribed to men and since the 1980s. women. Feminist ideas and attitudes are Plain Language. The topic ―Women concretely explained so that concepts can be and the Military‖ is certainly not a new po- understood in their historical dimensions. In litical subject in the 1990s; the author pre- her foreword, which is among the most sented food for thought about this already in noteworthy passages in the book, Alice 1978. For me, her reflections on the TV- Schwarzer identifies herself as a universal- conversations with Esther Vilar and Rudolf ist—however, her view of women and men Augstein and the TV talk-shows with Klaus is certainly not objective and her thinking Löwitsch and Verona Feldbusch are among and appraisals are mired in hierarchical the high points of the book, since more than models, from which she would like to free thirty years of debate culture is revealed herself―seemingly insoluble contradictions here. in contradiction-filled debates. The essay ―30 Years of the Women‘s Movement,‖ published in EMMA on 6 June 2001, contains key sentences such as ―Women have no history.‖ Much of that which is newly testified here breathes the spirit of former times and sprays a mist of the charm of old battles—really new approaches are sorely missed. Nonetheless, I hope that Alice Schwarzer continues to raise her voice, continues to argue provocatively and with humor for a truly human way of cooperating because―and here I can only nod in agreement―women are not the better human beings. Rather, it is much more a question of creating a true gender democ-

racy beyond all role expectations and as- Even though my view of relations signments. For this, the knowledge and crea- between the sexes is far less rigid than the tivity of both women and men are needed. one I have inferred from many passages in ―The future is human.‖ this book, it nevertheless presents a piece of women‘s history that was dominant, lived in and uniquely characteristic of the old Fed- eral Republic. To me, it is very regrettable that Alice Schwarzer takes so little notice of the lives of women in the new federal prov- inces. The biographies, ruptures, and diverse experiences of East German women could have undergone the author‘s very personal interpretation via her feminist methodologi- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 20

Machismo, Islamismo. ―Is it five minutes to midnight, or Alice Schwarzer Reheats Old later already? Are the crusaders stoppable on Essays from EMMA for a the way to Islamic world domination―and can the enlightened world still be saved?‖ Volume on Jihad Fighters and With dramatic rhetoric, feminist journalist Muslim Societies and author Alice Schwarzer names the dan- gers she sees as central, specifically, that of Franziska Sperr advancing Islamic fundamentalism and the Trans. Amy Young possible consequences for democracy.

Review of Alice Schwarzer, ed. Die Got- Overrun by Islam. The southern flank of teskrieger und die falsche Toleranz. [The the former Soviet Union, as well as Af- Jihad Fighters and False Tolerance]. ghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir, and por- Köln: Kipenheuer & Witsch, 2002, pp. tions of the Balkans are in danger of being 208. ISBN 978-3462031058. Review origi- overrun by the Islam of the Taliban, accord- nally appeared in the Süddeutsche Zei- ing to the contributions of Gabriele Venzky, tung, 01 July 2002. Johannes von Dohnanyi and Wolfgang Gün- ter Lerch. Poverty and antiquated ideas are Trans. Note: the humus in which fundamentalism thrives. Contributors to the volume, in addition to Alice Schwarzer, are Elisabeth Badinter, French The American bombs on Afghanistan have author and Professor of Philosophy at the École by no means eliminated this danger. The Polytechnique in Paris, France; Johannes von central point of these three articles, grouped Donanyi, a German-American foreign corre- under the title ―And tomorrow the whole spondent who teaches at the Heinrich Heine world,‖ is complicity on the part of liberal University in Düsseldorf, Germany; Cornelia Filter, a German author and journalist; Bettina Europe, which from the authors‘ perspective Flitner, artist and photographer known for her reacts to extremist Islamic groups with a photo essays about women; Heiner Geißler, a mix of naïveté, helplessness and false toler- German author and former General Secretary of ance. This opinion is also shared by Muslim the Christian Democratic Union in Germany; academician Bassam Tibi in his contribution Wilhelm Heitmeyer, head of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Vio- regarding the specifically German ―pre- lence at the University of Bielefeld, Germany; scribed‖ love of the foreign: ―In place of the Wolfgang Günter Lerch, editor of the German mentality of the Nazis, who demonized eve- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and author of rything foreign, we now have the other ex- numerous books on Islam and Near Eastern treme of the ‗good‘ German, who glorifies politics and religion; Khalida Massaoudi, Alge- rian author and feminist activist; Robin Morgan, the foreign.‖ To be sure, this opinion is not American author, political theorist, and former pulled out of thin air, yet it does seem overly editor of Ms. Magazine; Bassam Tibi, a German broad. Can all the values of our hard-won of Syrian descent, A.D. White Professor at Cor- post-war democracy, built on freedom and nell University and Professor of International tolerance, have been wrong and simplistic? Relations at the Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Germany; and Gabriele Venzky, a Is there not a danger that the opinion ex- German author, journalist and Asian correspon- pressed here plays into the hands of those dent. who would prefer to seal off Germany against foreigners? Would anyone even be Have we spent the last thirty years in capable of reliably distinguishing between a coma, not noticing the harbingers of dan- ―good‖ and ―evil‖ foreigners, so that terror- ger? The images of the collapsing Twin ist attacks could be discovered already in the Towers in New York have shaken us awake. planning phase and therefore be prevented? Since then, we have become more suspi- And how high would the price be for domes- cious of the people from Islamic countries tic politics? who live and work with us. The word Such considerations, which could ―sleeper‖ has quite suddenly lost its harm- lead to a differentiated perspective, can re- less meaning. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 21 grettably not be found in this book. That is ‗holy war‘ by the Islamic center in Muen- unfortunate, as many of the arguments pre- ster, which had openly declared, prior to sented are quite worthy of consideration. September 11, its sympathetic stance toward Everyone who studies the outgrowths of mo- the Taliban in Afghanistan.‖ dern terrorism knows how extremely difficult it is to deal with this form of violence. The terrorism of Bin Laden is simply not locatable: the murderous attacks come out of the blue. A secret formula to prevent them does not exist, and the authors of this book, it may be assumed, know that as well. On her ―spiritual trip through Ger- many,‖ Cornelia Filter discovers that under the guise of an incorrectly understood tolerance, groups or institutions that sow the seeds of worldwide terror are tolerated or even promoted. The seven-day trip docu- mented here leads to the Islamic centers and institutions in Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Muenster, and supposedly shows ―how an Islamic network is woven across Ger- The liveliest and most convincing many.‖ Everywhere she goes, she meets part of the book is dedicated to women‘s ―supposedly‖ peaceable Muslims, ―zealous issues, though it unfortunately consists converts,‖ and, as she describes in a conde- mostly of reprints from the magazine scending tone, ―tolerant Christians and en- EMMA, edited by Alice Schwarzer. Is this lightened democracy advocates.‖ The many supposed to show that these topics were peaceable Muslims who live and work in overlooked by everyone else but discussed Germany, without connection to terror or in EMMA since 1979 and that the Cassan- violence, remain unmentioned. The words dras have been calling for a long time, but ―tolerant and enlightened‖ have a clearly were not heard? Be that as it may, Elisabeth negative connotation here. That is inten- Badinter‘s article, which appeared in a 1991 tional, and therefore irritating. special issue of EMMA called ―War,‖ deals Filter‘s contribution too would have with the so-called headscarf scandal in been more convincing had she made more France in 1989. Badinter, the well-known precise distinctions. It is true that some of professor, author and philosopher, manages the so-called ―sleepers,‖ such as the suicide to avoid oversimplification, carefully and assassins from Hamburg, were able to pre- intelligently analyzing the reasons why the pare their insane deed so meticulously and three veiled girls ―touched the most explo- sive problems in French society‖ at the successfully because they could study and 3 make contacts in Germany without disrup- time . But that was 13 years ago. tion or discovery. On the other hand, they The contribution of feminist activist also gave the authorities no reason to be sus- Robin Morgan is also only an updated ver- picious of them. At most, more attention sion of the introduction to her book Demon should have been paid to what was happen- Lover from 1989. It is about the outgrowths ing in many of the Islamic centers in Ger- of a ―phallocentric‖ cultural tradition, about many. On that point, the author is correct: macho societies in the Middle East, Asia and ―A young man doesn‘t become a jihad fighter in his sleep. According to the Ger- 3 The reference is to a highly publicized incident in man Federal Criminal Police, the three which three Muslim schoolgirls were expelled for sleepers from Hamburg were presumably wearing the scarf (hijab) to classes, an action that was deemed contrary to French prohibition of religious provided with the ideological tools for the symbols in educational settings. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 22 the West. She locates the typical Islamic The tone is casual and ironic, now hero at the ―intersection of violence, eroti- angry, now funny, basically cheerful. They cism and masculinity.‖ In a 12-page appen- take seriously the girls they used to be, but dix, Robin Morgan refers to many events, without nostalgia. Anyone who likes read- some from the more distant past, that should ing memoirs will get his or her money‘s have drawn the attention of the public and worth here: school days, fads, crushes, the authorities to the misogynistic positions American films, pop music, fashion (the and practices of Islamic groups. Instead, in detested nylon stockings, the coveted close- her opinion, an unbelievably careless naiveté fitting jeans), detaching from one‘s family— and ignorance prevail nearly everywhere. all from the perspective of ―Do you remem- When asked what he thought of the Taliban ber?‖ during the campaign, George W. H. Bush reportedly said, ―Is that a rock group or Do you remember the nylon stockings? something?‖ Again, the tenor of the article is The authors proceed chronologically, that nobody was paying attention, even but the format of letter and reply provides a though the catastrophe could and should dialogic momentum and intellectual breadth. have been predicted. They argue over who remembers ―correct- Even if the tone of hindsight know- ly,‖ for the details of the past become it-all can occasionally get on the reader‘s blurred for everyone, but a little differently nerves, this book remains worth reading. It for each woman. Since the letters are writ- focuses attention on Islamic machismo and ten years after the events and experiences is simultaneously a warning to adherents of they are about, the power of memory itself democracy not to overlook fundamentalist unexpectedly becomes a subject for discus- danger out of indulgence and romantic sion. multiculturalism. The two women are from Wuppertal —like Else Lasker-Schüler, Alice Schwar- zer‘s favorite poet―, attend the same Prefeminist Girlhood schools, are inseparable, and later, craving independence, move to Munich together Ruth Klüger where they share a room and yearn for Paris. Trans. Jeanette Clausen The end of the friendship, which also signals the end of youth for them, coincides with Review of Schwarzer, Alice and Barbara Alice‘s move to France and the start of her Maia. Liebe Alice! Liebe Barbara! [Dear journalistic career and with the beginning of Alice! Dear Barbara!]. Köln: Kiepen- Barbara‘s unhappy marriage and her life as a heuer & Witsch, 2005, pp. 240. ISBN mother. 978-3453-640191. Review originally ap- At first these texts are admittedly a peared in Die Welt, 5 March 2005. bit superficial and glitzy, radiating cheeri-

Two sixty-year old women on a ness and high spirits. Political and social quest for a lost era: Germany‘s most promi- problems are merely intermittent drops of nent feminist and her ―best friend‖ from rain in the consciousness of young people, girlhood writing letters to each other in concerned as they are with dancing and per- 2004. The two women have not seen each sonal possessions. In that respect the two other for years, renew the friendship, hit it did not have it easy as children. off just as in old times, and decide to share Both were fatherless with helpless memories in an exchange of letters about the mothers who could not be role models for years 1957 to 1964, when they were be- them. Schwarzer, an illegitimate child, re- tween 14 and 21. To cut to the chase: the garded her mother as an older sister; only friend, Barbara Maia, writes just as impres- her grandparents, with whom she lived (―my sively as the more famous author Alice outcast-ish family‖), and especially her be- Schwarzer. loved grandfather, were authorities. Barbara Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 23 despised her mother, who regularly had their rights, but she can also be sharply criti- screaming fits. To a great extent, the girls cal of women and analyzes what she be- were left to their own devices. There were lieves to be feminine foibles. Concerning an any number of prohibitions but no warnings; anti-female film critique by a woman jour- the society was prudish and more interested nalist, she writes: ―Women can be down- in restricting young people than in enlight- right mean and cowardly. It struck me that ening them. The pervasive theme of silence only men have written accurately about this when one should have spoken up is ex- film.‖ And in another context: ―Funny, pressed also in the grownups‘ reluctance to these scheming nasty behaviors have fol- deal with the Nazi past. In Munich the two lowed me my whole life. And of course they meet Jewish immigrants. They feel sympa- always came only from women. Since they thetic to them but do not dare to ask them are too weak to attack head-on, they do it about their past. from the rear.‖ Conversely and yet of a kind, Starting with the time in Munich, the ―the rage and revolt of an Ulrike Meinhof . . letters become more serious, the memories . surely [had] far deeper reasons than the more ambivalent. What caused the friend- great political idea. It was, I believe, also her ship to break down? Was it the men who, petty, humiliating life as a woman that after all, were less important to the two caused her to flip out.‖ young women than their relationship with each other? Their partly contradictory ex- Nowadays we women are better off! changes about this acid test, when friend- These are feminist theses argued on ships and love affairs cross paths, make very the basis of examples from the private life of suspenseful reading. the founder of EMMA. The focus is primar- ily on Alice, even in Barbara‘s letters. But Barbara also writes vividly about a woman‘s life that Alice did not know, about housewives‘ woes that could not be brought out in the open given the pressures of society in the nineteen fifties and sixties. The unanimous conclusion of this collection of letters is: Nowadays we women are better off than we were then. What is captivating about this book is the mixture of thoughtfulness and everyday silliness, of awakening political consciousness and the hair-curling (literally!)

private life, of soul-destroying, boring office No less gripping are their memories jobs—at the time there were hardly any of attempted rape, which both report from other options for women—and the convic- personal experience. Barbara experienced it tion that one could make more of oneself. no less than five times. ―Plus other danger- In the end, the back–and–forth of two wom- ous situations.‖ Alice is of the opinion that en‘s voices expresses affirmation of life and such attacks inevitably encompass death affirmation of friendship. threats. She comments: ―What do we women do with all that? And where do we get the confidence, a few days later, to go out swimming, dancing, and flirting again?‖ And why is it not talked about? Probably so as not to overburden one‘s self-esteem. Alice Schwarzer is no naïve, one- note feminist. She speaks up for women and Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 24

The FrauenMediaTurm [FMT]/ and its re-creation as a woman-only space. Women’s Media Tower An advisory board headed by Schwarzer took over the leadership of the FMT. [Fe- Monika Moyrer minist Europa editor Tobe Levin is an advisory board member. Editor‘s note.] The arc- In January 2007, Monika Moyrer Visited hive‘s primary mission became to collect the FrauenMediaTurm. This is Her Re- and archive historical documents of the first- port. wave feminist movement (roughly from the „Wiever alaaf!‟ [Women to the Fore]. mid 19th century until 1933) and the second ―Wer den Turm hat, hat die Macht.‖ [She 4 wave (from 1971 until the present). It has Who Has the Tower Has the Power]. since expanded its scope to include docu-

When Alice Schwarzer, Germany‘s mentation about a wide range of feminist most renowned feminist and editor of the topics such as feminist theory, sexual poli- women‘s journal EMMA exclaimed „Wiever tics and sexual violence, work (domestic and alaaf!‖5 (Women to the Fore), she celebrated labor), literature, art, and biographies. the fact that in 1994 the FrauenMediaTurm Schwarzer‘s double role as the editor (FMT = Women‘s Media Tower) had finally of EMMA and chairwoman of the advisory found an appropriate home. Negotiations board of the FMT proved beneficial for the with the city of Cologne to use the medieval archive‘s publicity. The FMT‘s work is of- Bayenturm (Bayentower) as an archive de- ten featured in EMMA. The FMT, in return, dicated to feminist research had been suc- archives Schwarzer‘s writing in general and cessfully completed. Since then, the FMT, EMMA‘s in particular. The close relation- located on the banks of the Rhine, has be- ship between Schwarzer‘s EMMA and the come the most comprehensive modern spe- FMT benefited my work directly. Living in cial collection for gender inequity and gend- the United States while doing research on er research in German-speaking countries. photographer Bettina Flitner, one of Schwarzer‘s project started in 1984 Schwarzer‘s close allies, I contacted the with the founding of the ―Feministische FMT via the online collection accessible Archiv und Dokumentationszentrum‖6 (Fe- through the Internet and requested an ap- minist Archive and Center for Documenta- pointment to coincide with a fieldtrip to Co- tion) in Frankfurt that sought to counter logne where I planned to visit museums and women‘s collective obliteration from history interview the photographer as well. I knew books. With the move into the Bayenturm, that Flitner had been working and publishing Schwarzer felt that her project had found a for EMMA for many years. Upon my arrival space to adequately represent the archive‘s in January 2007, an employee introduced me mission, to give women access to their histo- to the collection, explained the search sys- ry in a room (or rather a collection) of their tem and guided me through the on-line cata- own. Thus Schwarzer stresses the symbolic logue. Because of the FMT‘s personalized occupation of the (phallic) tower by women support service I was able, within two days, to find around twenty-one articles to which

4 Alice Schwarzer. „Wer den Turm hat, hat die Bettina Flitner had contributed. It was only a Macht.― EMMA 5. 1994. 90-94. matter of hours to photocopy the material. 5 Alice Schwarzer. ―Ein Turm für Frauen allein.‖ The unique atmosphere convinced Turm der Frauen. Der Kölner Bayenturm. Vom alten me to stay longer and explore the collection. Wehrturm zum FrauenMediaTurm. [A Tower of Our The tower itself with its remodeled modern Own. Tower of Women. The Cologne Bayen Tower. From Old Military Tower to Women‘s Media and harmonious interior is impressive. Lo- Tower] Alice Schwarzer, ed., Cologne: Dumont: cated on the last (and highest) two levels of 1994. 52-70. the tower, the archive enjoys full daylight 6 The Feministische Archiv und Dokumentations- and offers breathtaking views of Cologne. zentrum and the FrauenMediaTurm have received Five to ten users were present, so the place financial support from the Institut für Sozialfor- schung [Institute for Social Research], Hamburg. did not feel crowded. The quiet atmosphere Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 25 is enhanced by desks in corner niches that importance of the FMT. Rather, I encourage allow for individual working spaces. The everyone to demonstrate their commitment remarkable architecture features metal stair- to gender and women‘s research by using cases leading higher up in the tower and critically (online or on site) this fine re- allowing for comfortable browsing through search institution. Women of all colors, na- the upper bookshelves. tionalities, and means join the chorus … I consider one of the FMT‘s strengths alaaf! its broad definition of scholarship. Observ- The FMT has a highly recommended website ing the feminist principle that the private is with an extensive on-line catalogue. It is ac- political, the collection has grown over the cessible under www.frauenmediaturm.de. years and includes, besides books, articles, sound documents, and films a selection of Who Has the Answer? buttons, posters, flyers, photographs, slides, and personal letters. While the published Jeanette Clausen material has been catalogued and can be researched online, the visual archive is only A Review Essay on Media Reception of Alice accessible on site. An additional strength, Schwarzer’s Die Antwort. [The Answer]. however, is the refined electronic research Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2007, pp. 208. ISBN 978-3462037739. system that has been created with the ―FrauenMediaThesaurus‖ (women‘s media Media reception of Alice Schwarzer's thesaurus). Conceived as an instrument that latest book, Die Antwort, reveals much supplies meaningful search terms characte- about attitudes toward feminism in Germany ristic of women‘s and gender research, this as well as toward the author herself. More system allows for differentiated and syste- than any of her previous books, this one matic searches organized in sub-categories generated wide interest and was reviewed in (a list with 49 pages of alphabetical and sys- most major news media. It was serialized in tematic categorization can be accessed on- its entirety in the Frankfurter Allgemeine line). I highly recommend web access and Zeitung prior to its June 2007 publication. online search first. It helps to determine This review essay is based on seven inter- whether you can simply order articles or views and ten reviews that aired or were printed sources (for a reasonable fee) or published shortly before, during, and after whether you should make the trip. You can the serialization. also easily contact the professional staff via Die Antwort contains little new analy- e-mail or phone. They respond right away sis: Schwarzer reiterates and expands on and are eager to give advice. points she has made before to answer the Although the FrauenMediaThesau- question ―Where are we now?‖ (p. 25). She rus allows for systematic and differentiated readily admits, when challenged, that the searches, I wonder whether issues such as title sounds a bit arrogant (―The‖ answer!), race have been exhaustively addressed. The and responded good-naturedly to a sugges- focus on biographies of successful women tion that the book reads like a ―best of Alice and especially on second wave feminism re- Schwarzer‖ (―'The best of' is not bad,‖ Al- flects, in my opinion, a blind spot in the thaus and Arnet). Die Antwort consists of an German women‘s movement. In the same introduction and eleven chapters, some as vein I believe that the close relationship be- long as 20 pages, some as short as six. tween the archive and Alice Schwarzer, as Chapter titles highlight contentious issues beneficial as it was for the success of the within feminism (Ch. 2, ―Women are differ- FMT, may constitute a risk, especially if it ent by nature‖), one-note opposition (Ch. 4, narrows the archive‘s focus. One should not ―Abortion is murder‖), truisms that obscure have any doubts: it is mainly Schwarzer‘s real, and unsolved, problems (Ch. 5, ―A agenda that is pursued here. Yet in voicing child needs its mother‖; Ch. 6, ―A profes- this critique, I do not mean to diminish the sion alone won't make you happy‖), com- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 26 plicity by women, including the author, in minister for family policy Ursula von der unrealistic images of beauty (Ch. 7, ―I'm too Leyen. Her invariable response is to restate fat‖), shallow ―liberalism‖ (Ch. 8, ―Pornog- her position that ―autonomous feminism‖ is raphy is sexy‖) and excuses for lack of not inherently more rooted in the left than meaningful progress (Ch. 9, ―There will the right but crosses party lines. Some inter- always be prostitution‖). The chapter on viewers seem unwilling to engage this issue, Islam (Ch. 3, ―In the name of the prophet‖) instead trying (without success) to bait the provides an overview of experiences and author or provoke her to anger (e.g., Gorris, events that shaped the author's views on this Voigt, and Stiekel in Der Spiegel; Althaus subject. Later chapter titles reference myths and Arnet for FACTS). Some readers who about families (Ch. 10, ―We used to be hap- expected to find their [negative] stereotypes pier‖) and about men (Ch. 11, ―Men will of feminism and of Schwarzer herself con- never change‖)—but they can, says Schwar- firmed in Die Antwort point out the absence zer, if women will only take them seriously of man-hating diatribes (Busse) or wag- as human beings and insist on negotiating gishly describe the author as so ―tamed‖ that equality in the family. Her statement in this men need no longer fear her (Peter). Several chapter that there are some men—though find her more conciliatory than in the past not many—with whom she gets along better (Gaschke & Niejahr; Newmark; Krings). than with certain women (p. 160) is picked One reader even sees Die Antwort as an un- up gleefully by several commentators. The welcome departure from Schwarzer's earlier final chapter (Ch. 12, ―Women shouldn't go writings that exhorted women to risk becom- too far‖) echoes American feminist Robin ing unpopular for the sake of feminist causes Morgan's famous Going Too Far (1968). (Zuleger). Schwarzer: ―Quite the contrary. We women An opposite response is that of Julia can't go far enough, in my opinion, for after Voss, writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine all, we're coming from a long way off‖ (p. Zeitung as its serialization of Die Antwort 167). The book concludes with an index of begins. Voss, noting that people from ―very names and suggested readings. different political camps‖ have felt provoked by Alice Schwarzer, interprets the latter's refusal to align with one side or the other as a tactic to avoid both false friends and false enemies (a claim that Schwarzer herself has made). She cites Germanist Ruth Klüger's essay ―Women read differently,‖ which asks why, when analyzing works of art such as ―The Rape of the Sabine Women,‖ no one says anything about the content. Voss: ―And that is what Alice Schwarzer always did— say something about the content.‖ At least one reviewer applauds Schwarzer's ―calling it as she sees it‖ on the subject of Islamic fundamentalism (Laurien, also in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). However, other reviewers express concern, A theme taken up by nearly all the e.g., Gaschke and Niejahr to Schwarzer: reviewers and interviewers is whether Die ―You even see tendencies of an Islamic in- Antwort espouses a new, ―conservative‖ filtration of the constitutional state. Doesn't feminism in, for example, Schwarzer's ap- that sound like conspiracy theory?‖ Schwar- proving comments in the book's introduction zer responds by citing abuse of women that about Germany's conservative prime minis- is ―tolerated‖ out of misplaced respect for ter Angela Merkel and equally conservative Islamic tradition: ―Politicized Islam is more Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 27 than hostile to women; it is hostile to human that she disagrees with (e.g., Schwarzer's beings and to democracy‖ (DIE ZEIT, 31 support for abortion rights). She concludes May 2007). Turning to the chapter on Islam her review with these words: ―We are re- in Die Antwort, we find a brief account of sponsible for the quality of our society. This Schwarzer's relationship to her Algerian is a book for men and women who think of ―extended family,‖ ongoing since 1994 themselves as citizens.‖ Of all the reviews, when she interceded on behalf of journalist Laurien's is perhaps the one Schwarzer Djamila Seddiki, who was seeking asylum would have wished for: praise and criticism in Germany. She claims to have found a based on passion and conviction. In the end, ―measuring stick‖ in Djamila's cousin readers must find the answers. Ganoud, a devout young Muslim whose faith is ―not so strict but yet strict enough to List of Works Cited start every third sentence with ‗Alice, the Interviews Althaus, Nicole and Daniel Arnet. ―Women prophet said . . . ‗Whenever I attack politi- must stop this motherhood-kitsch.‖ (Frau- cized Islam, I ask myself ‗What would en müssen mit dem Mutterkitsch aufhören). Ganoud say?'‖ (p. 65).―One looks in vain FACTS. 31 May 2007. for any details of Schwarzer's conversations Brehm, Walter and Regula Weik. ―Intelligent with this young man that might provide in- women will let machos go extinct.‖ (Die sight into her position. Perhaps that will be kluge Frau lässt Machos aussterben). St. another book. Galler Tagblatt. 29 March 2007. The title of social historian Hans- Gaschke, Susanne and Elisabeth Niejahr. ―'Me, Ulrich Wehler's review encapsulates both defensive?' A conversation with DIE ZEIT‖ his support of Schwarzer and his analysis of (Ich, defensiv? Ein ZEIT-Gespräch). DIE her leadership: ―A Lance for Alice Schwar- ZEIT. 31 May 2007. Gorris, Lothar, Claudia Voigt, and Bettina zer‖ [Eine Lanze für Alice Schwarzer]. He Stiekel. ―Panic in the patriarchy. A Spiegel- goes so far as to state that the world would Conversation.‖ (Panik im Patriarchat. Spie- be worse off without her and offers this as- gel-Gespräch). Der Spiegel. 29 May 2007. sessment of the campaign for equal rights Krings, Dorothee. ―Alice Schwarzer takes legislation in Germany: ―Without the dyna- stock. ‖ (Alice Schwarzer zieht Bilanz). RP mism, critical analysis, and continuing en- Online. 3 June 2007. gagement of a spokeswoman like Alice ―Key to Equal Rights.‖ (Schlüssel zur Gleich- Schwarzer, that success would probably not berechtigung). Büchermenschen (Das Hu- have come about in this form. One need gendubel-Magazin). June 2007. only imagine [Alice Schwarzer] absent . . . Voss, Julia. ―The Next Sex.‖ Our preprint of in order to recognize the extent to which this Alice Schwarzer's new book Die Antwort begins today. (Das kommende Geschlecht. journalist and de-facto-politician, often on Heute beginnt unser Vorabdruck von Alice her own, has convincingly championed the Schwarzers neuem Buch ―Die Antwort‖). cause of women.‖ (Weltwoche.ch, Issue 21, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 2007. 2007). Whether one agrees with his analysis or not, one cannot deny Schwarzer's impor- Reviews tance as a public voice for women's issues in Brendel, Sabine. ―The headscarf serves as a Germany. banner.‖ (Das Kopftuch dient als Flagge). Allgemeine Frankfurter Zeitung re- Westfälische Rundschau. 4 July 2007. Busse, Eva. ―The weak sex. Castration Agony: viewer Hanna-Renate Laurien responds en- Alice Schwarzer writes a new book without thusiastically and personally to Die Antwort: a single hate-tirade for German men!‖ (Das ―How gratified I was to see [Schwarzer], in schwache Geschlecht. Qual der Kastration: complete control, refuting publicists' attacks Alice Schwarzer schreibt ein neues Buch - on gender-mainstreaming and returning to und widmet dem deutschen Mann keine einzi- the question of power. . . . ― Laurien praises ge Hasstirade!). Vanity Fair. July 2007. the author's courage in expressing contro- Funck, Gisela. ―Alice Schwarzer, `The Answer'.‖ versial opinions while also criticizing points (Alice Schwarzer, Die Antwort). (Manuscript Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 28

for broadcast). Deutschlandfunk. 27 June lee on 9 January 2008, Schwarzer an- 2007. nounced two new books on the writer who Laurien, Hanna-Renate. ―Sounding the alarm in passed away in 1986. The two women had our pornography-saturated society.‖ known each other well, both engaged since (Alarmruf in unserer pornographisierten Ge- the early 70s in the women‘s movement. sellschaft). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. These discussions with Simone de 20 July 2007. Newmark, Catherine. ―Update on sexual poli- Beauvoir can be understood as key to her tics.‖ (Update in Sachen Geschlechterpolitik). political work as well as to her life. Inti- Dradio.de. 5 June 2007. mate and open talks, they treat identity, Peter, Freia. ―Men fare very well with Alice love, power, politics, children, and men― Schwarzer.‖ (Bei Alice Schwarzer kommen all still burning issues. Männer gut weg). Welt Online. 29 May 2007. In a newspaper article about both Swoboda, Manuela. ―'Women are only men too.' publications, Schwarzer mentions that ―al- Alice Schwarzer's answers to questions of though [she] knows de Beauvoir‘s work our time. Not for women only.‖ („‘Frauen well, [she] constantly finds something new, sind auch nur Männer‘. Alice Schwarzers something surprising.‖ And Schwarzer is Antworten auf Fragen unserer Zeit. Nicht nur ―always thrilled by the clarity of thought, für Frauen―). Kleine Zeitung. 3 June 2007. Uhlmann, Tina. ―Toddling backward? Striding the integrity of de Beauvoir‘s sense of jus- forward!‖ (Zurück trippeln? Voran schrei- tice and the cleverness of her vision as ten!). Berner Zeitung. 31 May 2007. expressed in political essays, above all in Wehler, Hans-Ulrich. ―A Lance for Alice Schwarzer‖ The Second Sex [1949].‖ In the memoirs (Eine Lanze für Alice Schwarzer). Welt- and letters, in contrast, it is the ―passion woche.ch, issue 21/2007. and vulnerability‖ that ―exercise great at- Zuleger, Andrea. ―Make yourself unpopular! traction‖ (Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zei- Alice Schwarzer's Die Antwort is a nice tung, No. 274, 24 November 2007, Z 3). read—too nice.‖ (Machen Sie sich unbeliebt! Two of de Beauvoir‘s most beautiful com- ―Die Antwort‖ von Alice Schwarzer ist nett positions, Les Belles Images (1966) and La zu lesen, zu nett). Magazin. 9 June 2007. Femme Rompue (1968), further testify to her refined emotional quality, but Schwar- Two New Publications by Alice zer confesses one lacunae here: to this day, Schwarzer: Brief Introduction both novels remain on her future reading list. Waltraud Dumont du Voitel and Tobe Levin

Schwarzer, Alice. Simone de Beauvoir und Alice Schwarzer. Weggefährtinnen im Gespräch. Interviews 1972 – 1982. [Simone de Beauvoir and Alice Schwarzer: Comrades in Conversation. Interviews 1972 – 1982]. Köln: Kiepen- heuer & Witsch, 2007, pp. 121, ISBN 978-346 20 39563.

―My work is my life‖ was her motto: Simone de Beauvoir, French author, philosopher and feminist. To ensure that this work is not forgotten, Alice Schwarzer took the 100th anniversary of de Beauvoir‘s birth to place her friend once again before the public. For Simone de Beauvoir‘s jubi-

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 29

Schwarzer, Alice ed. Simone de ne Zeitung No. 274, 24 November 2007, Z Beauvoir. Ein Lesebuch mit Bi l- 3). dern. [Simone de Beauvoir. An Illustrated Reader]. Rowohlt Verlag: For a complete bibliography of Alice Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2008, pp. 334, Schwarzer’s books go to: ISBN 978-349 8064. www.emma.de; www.aliceschwarzer.de. Offering excerpts from Simone de Beauvoir‘s most important writings, an impressive photo section and a comprehen- Politics sive essay, Alice Schwarzer takes the measure of the French philosopher‘s life Bodily Constraint work, asking what meaning she holds for Yvonne Guichard-Claudic today‘s society and how the future will receive her. What about the insights and Trans. Tobe Levin demands of the women‘s movement that has achieved so many positive changes? Review of Marquié, Hélène and Noël This excellent introduction to the Burch, eds. Emancipation sexuelle ou older woman‘s oeuvre includes a prome- contrainte des corps. [Sexual Emancipa- nade through her memoirs, letters to Sartre, tion or Bodily Constraint]. Paris: and her ―trans-Atlantic love‖ Nelson Al- L’Harmattan, collection Bibliothèque du gren. Novels and essays are presented as féminisme, 2006, pp. 178. ISBN 2-296-0 well. 0222-6. Review originally appeared in Bulletin de l‟ANEF Autumne 2006. 75- 79. This is the fourth volume to emerge from a course on ―Social Relations of the Sexes in Culture,‖ let first by Geneviève Sellier and Odile Krakovitch, then by Élaine Viennot and finally by Delphine Naudier and Brigitte Rollet at the Univer- sity of Versailles Saint-Quentin. In this This is the fourth volume to emerge from a course on ―Social Relations of the Sexes in Culture,‖ led first by Geneviève Sellier and Odile Krakovitch, then by Éliane Viennot and finally by Delphine Naudier and Brigitte Rollet at the University of VersaillesQueIn trans-disciplinary seminar, participants aim to ―illuminate, always in historical context, the complex relations between men and women and the collective imaginary whose cultural products are both pillar and result‖ (Introduction 9). Here, a passionate program analyzes the discourse of sexual freedom associated with out-of-the-mainstream erotic milieus. These tend to be called transgres- „But who is she?‖ Schwarzer asks sive merely because such praxis is consid- and immediately answers: „She is a wom- ered liberating. Yet, it is this very link be- an on whom the nineteenth century placed tween violation of sexual norms and its stamp but who wrote herself into the women‘s liberation that the volume ques- twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She is tions. In literature, cinema, and choreogra- a woman who called for absolute equality phy, on which models are bodies con- in an age which hadn‘t yet imagined such a structed? Which sexualities violate norms? thing—and at the same time remained con- Is there really a necessary tie between al- scious of her own all too obvious ‗femi- ternative sexual behaviors and women‘s nine‘ conditioning‖ (Frankfurter Allgemei- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 30 emancipation? Or, more precisely, who the political presupposition of a contract profits from contravention and the result- and instrumentalization of women‘s bodies ing increase in freedom? This doubt is all that many practices effect. Garcia de- the more crucial because cultural critics nounces with particular vehemence the and media tend simply to take it for depoliticization of social relations, notably granted that such works disturb the moral those of gender, derived from confusion order. But do they really? The fact that that these authors seem to cultivate be- these books are female-authored already tween sexual misery and social misery, the grants them a patina of the egalitarian and moral order and the social order, the strug- underwrites their opposition to a kind of gle for sexual liberation and the struggle feminist criticism presented as moralizing, for a more just and less unequal society. In conservative, and puritan. This, however, her view, a ―utopia of freely exchanged hides what it is in these discourses that sexual favors‖ is far from emancipating; on reflects, produces or legitimizes gender the contrary, such a viewpoint cements domination in sexual matters. women‘s bodies even more firmly into Hélène Marquié provides a clear commercial space permitting unleashed introduction. The first three contributions consumption, ―even when accompanied by analyze contemporary artistic production profound violence against those men and while the four following look at 16th and women who have nothing but their bodies 17th century libertine literature and 18th to sell‖ (44). century opera. The diversity of disciplines ―sociology, aesthetics, literary history, literature, musicology and more―underlines the transversality of gender and the importance of seeing sexual difference socially constructed from various perspectives. Sandrine Garcia studies the emergence in French culture of virulent criticism of the feminist movement in the name of sexual liberation and the need to move toward decriminalizing sex commerce already symbolized by the existence of a ―contract‖ freely entered into by consent- ing adults. The chapter privileges work by Michel Houllebecq and Kate Millet, essays by Elisabeth Badinter and Marcela Iacub, Similar considerations are at work as well as their statements in the press. It in relation to dance. There, carried through may seem exaggerated to assimilate the by an aesthetics of the provocative, the positions of Badinter and Iacub, despite staging of sexual violence is presented as certain convergences, not to mention their an egregious transgression against the link to the other authors mentioned, given dominant order. Nonetheless, the work of significant contrasts in their work. The de- Marquié‘s female choreographers fails to monstration is nonetheless convincing in escape from a conservative representation so far as Sandrine Garcia reveals the many of sexual relations, the woman‘s body ap- manipulations that permit presenting sex- pearing systematically as the object of ual practices censured by the ethical com- men‘s desire. A work‘s hold on concrete munity (partner swapping, prostitution, reality is evacuated to benefit a purely pornography, etc.) as emancipating. theoretical interpretation that negates any The trick is to insist on the consent of the individuals involved and to obscure Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 31 political analysis of the gender relations thinking, libertine texts displace philoso- enacted. phy on the topics of marriage, pleasure and The study of writing (on) the body desire, and to counter religious credulity, in novels by 20th century women under- they furnish a subversive framework for taken by Audrey Lasserre shows a similar reflection. Even if women rarely escape aesthetic of the miserable: females are masculine domination, especially in this murdered, violated, reduced to their sex. century which had not yet recognized an Claims made by partisans of ―l‘écriture ontological difference between the sexes, féminine‖ cannot liberate in a world that the era produced a limited space in which markets women‘s bodies. Even if new gen- real sexual equality could be conceived eration novelists offer protagonists in re- within a philosophy of gratification, nature volt, too often they also reduce heroines to and liberty of thought. their curves, described from a masculine Raphëlle Legrand‘s chapter closes viewpoint. the work with a study of opera divas and In her interpretation of a famous stars of the opéra comique in 18th century 16th century tale, Les Comptes amoureux, France. Did the fact of exercising a re- Éliane Viennot supports this thesis. In spectable profession contribute to women‘s these ‗amorous tales‘ reputedly by a emancipation? The ambiguous and contra- woman author, Jeanne Flore, a sexual dis- dictory images of the epoch do not permit course was celebrated for its sensuality and an affirmative answer. For one thing, the the piece appreciated for its critique of women had to work extremely hard with marriages that couple younger women and innumerable rehearsals and performances. older men. For Éliane Viennot, however, Yet extant writing includes performance it‘s not a problem of young women being reviews and songs that hardly dwell on liberated into the arms of elderly partners; effort and talent but instead describe the rather, behind it are the desires of young women‘s bodies and the writers‘ own sex- clerics giving vent to their frustration at ual fantasies. In addition to several singers being deprived of access to female bodies known to be virtuous wives, we find a mul- other than those of prostitutes. These youth titude of virulent critics of women‘s ap- are really calling out against the monopoly pearance or supposed lifestyle. Raphaëlle held by older and more powerful men. Legrand suggests that these women, horri- Women‘s sexual emancipation in fying and fascinating, were ultimately im- the seventeenth century is Danièle Haase- prisoned in the concept of the prostitute, an Dubosc‘s theme in the following chapter. image of the most unfortunate. The more At the time, women were unable to con- favored either tried to escape or to instru- front the movement head on but schemed mentalize its stigma en route to perfecting undercover. Although sexual restraint is on their own emancipation. the surface, women softly called for recog- In sum, the work poses a question nition of their sexual desires and pleasure. as interesting as it is rare and makes a solid Yet, only a few grand courtesans and high contribution to reflection on the ways that nobility were able to freely flaunt social sexual inequality remains inscribed at the convention. Women‘s texts continue to heart of artistic representations of the sex- talk more about love than sexuality and are ual―as complex and ambiguous. interested to know whether or not love is compatible with liberty. Libertine writing is done by men; it questions morality and religion but fails to assess women‘s place in libertinage in terms of real risks. Sophie Houdard also looks at 17th century libertine literature and philosophy. In harmony with renaissance epicurean Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 32

Physician, Architect, Attorney employment in these fields has witnessed in France: Feminization of the women rise. Lapeyre sets out from certain indi- Liberal Professions cators showing how women and men nego- Sandra Frey tiate gendered professional space. Simple as this first step may seem, let‘s not under- Trans. Tobe Levin estimate the heightened challenge in defin-

Review of Lapeyre, Nathalie. Les profes- ing what actually happens when social sions face aux enjeux de la féminization. relations of the sexes are changed by the [Liberal Professions and Feminization]. imposition of policy recommendations Toulouse: Octarès. Collection Travail & aimed at creating equality where it had not Activité humaine, 2006, pp. 214. ISBN been before. In this sense, the book fur- 978-2915346305. Review originally ap- nishes a roadmap of the processes in- peared in the Bulletin de l‟ANEF Au- volved. tumne 2006. 64-74. Then, continuing a pragmatic approach, the author shows how the sexual Nathalie Lapeyre‘s detailed work, based on her doctoral dissertation, ad- division of labor and social differentiation dresses specialists and students wishing to by sex emerge, over and over again, even acquire a solid theoretical foundation in where this is not expected because it labor sociology. Its four chapters consider counters common sense. Thus, Lapeyre ―the professions,‖ the concept of ―gen- deploys the accepted theory by which pro- dered work,‖ ―waves of feminization in the fessions are devalued as soon as larger liberal professions,‖ and ―intra-profes- numbers of women enter them, and then sional relations of class.‖ It proposes a dy- shows, in a second move, how the profes- namic approach to the question of gen- sions studied―medicine, law and architec- dered labor. ture―re-establish internal sexual hierar- Before looking closely at content, chy, horizontally and vertically, with the let‘s consider the book‘s usefulness, con- practical result that women remain barred vinced as I am that ―the nobility of science from entering the upper echelons on a par derives from its utility and practical appli- with men. In addition, men and women cation,‖ criteria that Lapeyre honors. work differently, men over-represented a- The author inscribes her research at mong independents and associates, women the interface of several sociologies: the among dependent salaried employees. study of professional groups and their gen- The book analyzes sociological dered relationships; sociology of the fam- processes of feminization in the liberal ily; labor; and public policy, especially professions, based on the experience of since the French state is an important actor women and men who are physicians, attor- in configuring the liberal professions. The neys and architects. Feminization itself can well-written text reveals a remarkable skill be understood only in light of numerous in manipulating concepts while applying intersecting theoretical and historical ap- theory to large chunks of empirical data. proaches. Having researched the terrain, Solid and dense, it exhibits an extensive Lapeyre defends the idea that French knowledge of the liberal professions as women‘s accession to professions has been such and constitutes an important contribu- prey to dynamic factors affecting male/ tion to studies of gender in the sociology of female relations not only at work but also these fields. As a matter of fact, to interro- at home. gate gender and the professions appears The study reveals what happens not two projects but one, since twentieth when women in significant numbers show century history may be read as a tale of up in ―male bastions‖ of the labor market, feminization in professional life. After all, here the liberal professions. Inspired by Anthony Giddens in England and Beck and Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 33

Beck-Gernsheim in Germany, the author gation highlights the variability of individ- accepts the hypothesis that western nations ual trajectories, varying status and forms of have indeed entered an era of ―democrati- practice. To help navigate these interviews, zation‖ in gender relations; she thereby a typology of differing ―positionings‖ for takes her place alongside French and for- men and women ―in a partially gendered eign sociologists attentive to signs of configuration‖ was worked out. Such bio- change and willing to juggle evidence graphical accounts permit elaboration of a showing fissure in dichotomous masculine- typology focused on the temporal dimen- feminine thinking. Thus, she gives content sions of investment in profession or family. to the notion of ―partial configurations of Several indicators lead to three gender,‖ arguably her primary contribution main ―types‖: ―normative,‖ ―transitional,‖ to the field, and thereby avoids several and ―egalitarian.‖ Even if the author pitfalls common to research on gender in stresses the process of ―negotiation‖ which the labor force. permits individuals to modify (or rational- Given the specific history of the ize) their position vis-à-vis the ―partial liberal professions, a study of women‘s configuration of gender,‖ she doesn‘t adopt accession to them constitutes a rich object a ―pacifist vision of rapport between the of sociological analysis, propitious in re- sexes.‖ She therefore succeeds in dissect- vealing how gendered relations are negoti- ing pertinent mechanisms inscribed in the ated. Still, you might assume that femini- way a sexual division of labor is main- zation of the liberal professions challenges tained, but also introduces tensions and our traditional understanding of the domes- opportunities seized by individuals and tic sphere because women lawyers, doc- especially by women to escape their as- tors, and architects are no longer as ―avail- signed place. able‖ to fulfil household duties as before. At the same time, women‘s entry into these fields challenges the liberal professions‘ ‗ethos‘, forcing values, organizational principles and career maps to adapt. Lapeyre‘s focus not only on women but also men and their rapport with each other, looking closely at professional couples, produces a practical, dynamic and rela- tional study of gender. Regarding methodology, various levels of analysis reveal the underlying complexity. First, employment policy is examined. How does it confront the central issue of combining paid work with family responsibilities, the so-called ―social contract between the sexes‖? This approach opens several frames. Next comes a focus on internal changes within professions The first chapter deals with the supported by statistical demographic data, ―professions,‖ adumbrating the concept information that opens vistas onto various ―configuration of gender,‖ inspired by the waves of feminization. Finally, an empiri- work of Norbert Elias (1991, 1993, 1996, cal study is based on hundreds of inter- 1998, 2000) and presenting a certain vision views with women and men of various of social change borrowed from writings social classes and ages who are presently by Claude Dubar (1991, 2000), Anthony active in one of the three liberal profes- Giddens (1991, 1992), Ulrich Beck (2001) sions and includes employees. The investi- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 34 and Robert Connell (1987). Liberal profes- by deconstructing the relation between sions tend to be characterized by specific feminization and revaluation in the various norms, in particular the extended duration waves of change, both internally and ex- of work time as a national average, ap- ternally. Interestingly, the hypothesis proaching sixty hours per week. Histori- doesn‘t hold up because feminization is cally these fields have been constituted, one factor among many in a net of multiple first, on the exclusion of women and, sec- and varied changes in the liberal profes- ond, on male career patterns based on the sions. idea of delegation. What was delegated? Chapter three, considering the in- Domestic and family arrangements were fluence of educational reforms and profes- left to (male) professionals‘ wives; busi- sional reconfiguration on feminization, ness activity was underwritten by employ- evaluates women‘s place in various careers ees (secretaries, accountants, organiza- given differences in labor hours and reve- tional planners, reception of patients/ cli- nue, professional hierarchy, density, geo- ents, etc.)―that is, given over to other fe- graphical dispersion, and so forth. In the male social categories. Now, clearly, the last twenty years architecture, medicine arrival of women at the professional level and law have experienced a marked in- disrupted this model, so that it may appear crease in women yet have not undergone to be in a state of re-negotiation and re- simple devaluation. Rather, a ―local con- composition. figuration of gender‖ is evident. Despite In this instance, reconfiguration continuing internal segregation by sex, isn‘t the same as that in other employment feminization in these groups has entailed a sectors; rather, it is women‘s ultra-in- rewriting of the so-called ―professional vestment in their work when measured ethos,‖ i.e. what is typical of a career, par- against women‘s average labor hours else- ticularly concerning work hours. It was where. This permits Lapeyre to affirm that found that the path to success had changed a ―local configuration of genre‖ exists in response to interaction between women within the liberal professions. Yet she con- and men, resulting in new organizational tinues listing missed opportunities tied to a structures and variable length of the work- detailed analysis of links between the ing day. grand sociological theories and the way in Chapter three also looks at the so- which studies of professional women oper- cial lives of liberal professionals. Analysis ate in general (neo-Durkheim/Parsons, in- of more than one hundred biographies teractionists, neo-Marxists and neo-We- takes shape around four grand axes: so- berians). cialization within the family; transmission The first chapter advances the hy- of gender identity and development of ca- pothesis that these professions have wit- reer aims; entry into the labor market while nessed a partial redefinition of the ―profes- coordinating productive and reproductive sional ethos‖ resulting from the movement schedules; and dealing with career de- of women into previously male ranks: the mands in relation to family life. The author figures are 37% for doctors; 47% for law- shows how an ―increase in qualifications‖ yers, and 17% among architects. due to women‘s striving is not the only Chapters two, three and four con- significant result of having more women; a cern sociological interpretations of femini- structural reorganization of the entire pro- zation in the professions. The second chap- fession is also part of it, reflecting new ter deals with processes and waves of fem- ways of assigning work according to in- inization. Bibliographical analysis of French formal or improvised criteria. Redefini- and Anglo-Saxon sources reveals a domi- tions of the ―professional ethos‖ are visible nant interpretative theme: the ―devalua- in any number of practices, and not only tion‖ of professions in the process of fem- those adopted by women, namely ―densifi- inization. The author tests this hypothesis cation‖ or working in time blocks; ―flex- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 35 time‖; and limiting hours available for The world of work represents the sole work. In practical terms, this means orga- arena for self-realization which implies nizing meetings more tightly, ensuring that negotiation within the couple as to who no unproductive time enters into the work- takes on which domestic responsibility ing day, and keeping up with a set rhythm. ―or involves the delegation of tasks to It involves choosing the kind of patients or (generally speaking) other women (as nan- clients one desires; scheduling non-stop nies, maids, etc.). Men also negotiate their appointments; for physicians, eliminating investment of time at home, although the periods ‗on call‘, home visits or vacation division of labor tends to be lop-sided in duty; and for attorneys and architects, lim- that men don‘t think about home tasks as iting travel. Other indicators point to dele- much while still expecting domestic and gating work or dispensing with lunch educational norms to be maintained. The breaks to work straight through and finish egalitarian position in turn privileges im- earlier in the evening. Being associated provised exchange between women and with a group practice, as a physician or men, creative assignment of domestic and lawyer, also facilitates rearranging time to care-giving tasks, as well as distance from interface family and career. Labor hours gender stereotypes, allowing spontaneity become easier to limit with specialization: and creativity. Women and men both physicians, for instance, go into homeo- mould working hours to mesh with family. pathic medicine or acupuncture; attorneys Strategies include loosening otherwise focus on environmental law and architects strict familial traditions and pedagogic on urbanization. It is therefore pastiche, norms (for instance, introducing quick tinkering, and honing chunks of time that meals, liberal child-raising principles, etc.) permit women to attain a form of ―tempo- In conclusion, the book advances ral sovereignty‖ at the heart of the new the thesis that women‘s arrival in signifi- liberal professions. cant numbers in the liberal professions has Finally, the fourth chapter presents led to fissures in the usual sex-gender sys- a typology of positions that differentiate tem as local variations, at times partial and women from men to reveal the ―local con- fragile, emerge. Nonetheless, subjective figuration of gender.‖ These ideal types and objective analyses also show that fem- result from a dynamic approach to the rela- inization has not revolutionized labor pat- tionship between time and production. As terns in the liberal professions. The habitus we have seen, three positions emerge: the and ethos; the structure; the way work gets normative, transitional and egalitarian. The done as well as internal segregation con- typology enables us to understand why an tinue largely undisturbed. At the same individual logically belongs in one group time, a certain globalized homogenization or the other, determined by that person‘s may be in process, as significant numbers relationship to the process of democratiz- of men are, for the first time, among sala- ing social relations of the sexes. First, the ried employees and women numerous normative describes situations where, for among partners, the most prestigious and instance, women fit their professional best remunerated ranks. commitments into the domestic calendar, To sum it up, well anchored in sta- school and daily life: that is, they work tistical and narrative data supported by part-time or have limited hours. Leisure is expertise in French and Anglo-American spent for the most part with family. In this literature on social relations between the context, complementarity comes into play sexes, professional groups and time-man- as a principle tacitly demanded of women agement, the work supports an original, and with which they willingly comply. The central hypothesis that combines inductive transitional position, in contrast, evidenced moments with deductive elaborations and by most respondents in the study, incorpo- leads to the concept of ―partial configura- rates women‘s heavy commitment to work. tions of gender.‖ This in turn demonstrates Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 36 that we are dealing with two different de- sors shed an equally important light on velopments inappropriate to assimilate one the development of the discipline. Why? to the other: ―democratization of gender re- Because these women are at the same lations‖ and an ―increase in equality in the time the heirs and the antithesis of the liberal professions.‖ For even the best post-war generation ofGerman sociolo- qualified women approve of gendered divi- gists.” sions of labor, and massive feminization of (Ulrike Vogel, 10) the liberal professional labor force has not necessarily sharpened consciousness of Gesturing toward Karl Mannheim, ―the glass ceiling.‖ Ulrike Vogel, one of the women to take the floor in this collection, highlights what is typical of her generation of 23 women so- Women’s Studies’ Women: In- ciologists portrayed here. Born between roads into Sociology 1935 and 1949, they all became professors at German institutions of higher education. Birgit Blättel-Mink Some are now retired, some not.

Trans. Tobe Levin Six of them were associated with the Jo- hann Wolfgang Goethe-University of Review of Vogel, Ulrike, ed. Wege in die Frankfurt am Main and an equal number Soziologie und die Frauen- und Ge- with the Free University of Berlin—both schlechterforschung. Autobiographische schools the first in Germany to offer a ma- Notizen der ersten Generation von Profes- jor in sociology (1956-1958). At the Uni- sorinnen an der Universität. [Approaches versity of Frankfurt, Helge Pross pioneered to Sociology of Gender and Women’s Stu- women‘s studies in the 60s and 70s as as- dies. Autobiographical Sketches of Female sistant to Theodor W. Adorno and Max University Professors―the First Genera- Horkheimer, and many of the women pre- tion]. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 2006, pp. sented were her students. 326. ISBN 10 3-531-14966-0. Cologne, represented by René König, and Hannover, with its ―Institute „On the way to class in Kiel, a fellow for Women and Society,‖ also played a student ―both of us in the fourth seme- central role in smoothing the path, espe- ster ―asked me, ‚Do you already know cially for older female faculty. Known to how you get to be what you want to be?‟ scrutinize women‘s social position in gen- I was surprised and answered that I eral and her place in the profession in par- didn‟t even know what I wanted to be, ticular, René König enjoyed an exceptional let alone how to get there. I knew only reputation among women sociologists. The what I didn‟t want, and that was to be- generation represented had either trained or come a schoolteacher. „And you?‟ He already been professionally active during said, „A professor‟. I stood there in the positivism debate, with Adorno and awe. How could anyone want to be a Popper on the one side and Albert and Ha- professor?” bermas on the other. (Helga Krüger, 61) In her Afterword, Vogel emphasiz- “It was a new development for sociolo- es two characteristics shared by these aca- gy in Germany, that from the mid-70s demic women: experience of war in child- the first generation of women sociolo- hood or the early post-war period with gists made it to professorial rank. And mainly absent fathers (―incomplete fami- what was even more decisive, some of lies‖) and (more or less well) educated them founded the discipline of Gender mothers, who rarely exercised a profession Studies in the Federal Republic. … Au- and yet guaranteed the family‘s survival. tobiographical sketches of the first visi- ―Because these mothers revealed their re- ble minority of women sociology profes- sentment at having been forced into a Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 37 housewife‘s role, the daughters, as they sion that had not anticipated their entry often stated, wanted to avoid the same at into it, and the possibility of cooperation in any cost‖ (291). relationships aimed at overcoming interna- The author sees a second influence tional hostility‖ (156). With slightly differ- in the institutional development and con- ent emphasis Regina Becker-Schmidt ar- tent of university sociology in the 60s and gues: „It took me quite a while before I 70s, offering women increased opportuni- figured out that Adorno bracketed out an- ties to become professors and therefore to drocentric thinking and behavior when he introduce their favorite topics. But this theorized interaction between epistemolo- alone would not have sufficed to effect gy and social criticism and that, although permanent improvement for women aca- he laid bare the class structure of capitalist demics7. The new women‘s movement has society, he neglected to reveal the mechan- been responsible for this, as most of the isms of gender hierarchy‖ (40). faculty were part of it, critiquing gender Interviewees are differentiated by relations in society and differentiating childhood social class and private lives. themselves from the ―patriarchal main- Yet neither of these leads to any systematic stream‖ in order to overcome the barriers difference or significant influence on the in both. ―Among the first generation of later biography. Among the academic women sociology professors, many turned women we find petit bourgeois, as well as to women‘s and gender studies for their educated middle class childhood, and pro- inspiration and themes …‖ (290). fessors with partners and without, with Yet, the road was rocky. Intervie- children and without. Remarkable, howev- wees state again and again that the status er, is enthusiasm for learning in many pa- of professor didn‘t protect against discrim- rental homes and, above all, among moth- ination, in part because no one trusted ers. them to combine career and family successfully, or because their chosen research topics were ignored or, if recognized, then only with reluctance. As Marianne Ro- denstein notes: ―My social engagement had crystallized [in light of the end of the student movement in the 70s (Blättel-Mink)]; I was no longer concerned with abstrac- tions or distant lives but rather with my own situation as a young academic, and the condition of other women whose rights and opportunities were limited by an infinite number of male privileges. I understood sociology as then taught to be a piece with patriarchal dominance, legitimizing efforts to keep women subordinate‖ (140). Eva Two broad assumptions therefore Senghaas-Knob-loch wrote: „Two themes cannot be sustained given this sample. The of personal importance to me were wom- first is that Catholic daughters from rural en‘s awareness of their place in a profes- areas have as good as no chance of making it professionally, and the second that com-

7 Current statistics show that, following a period of bining career and child-rearing remains stagnation in the situation of women academics in nearly impossible. Tilla Siegel describes the 80s and 90s, things are gradually getting better, the strength of her petit bourgeois parental that is, the difference in status compared to men is home: ―… my mother was the one who shrinking; see gave us a hefty dose of cultural capital [in http://www.blk-info.de/fileadmin/BLK- Materialien/heft136.pdf. Pierre Bourdieu‘s terms, Blättel-Mink] in Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 38 that her conviction that we were intelligent The lives narrated here, while hig- and capable of thought convinced us, too‖ hlighting striking individual traits, also (193). With regard to private lifestyle reveal the biases by which subjects orient choices, the older women experienced the themselves toward their profession. Some double burden as mothers and academics emphasize key experiences in childhood or differently than the younger ones: ―Even youth that led them down a certain path; though I was already set up career-wise specific people played a role; or drive and before I became an ‗older mother‘, I still determination are keys to triumph over had to perform a balancing act between career hurdles. At times we find student work and home, taking into account the experience crucial, as undergraduate or structural inconsideration of our profession doctoral candidate, and finally, the field of vis-à-vis the family, society‘s (self)- sociology itself fascinates so many and has proclaimed concept of the ‗good mother‘ led to the discipline‘s growing richness. and our deeply anchored convictions con- Here are just a few individual por- cerning femininity and masculinity‖ (Som- traits. Carol Hagemann-White grew up in merkorn 30f). In contrast Ursula Müller: the USA and first came to study in Berlin. „... Lacking public childcare, I co-founded She had received her B.A. (I suppose) at a nursery on university grounds as a charit- Harvard, which had given her the opportu- able association, and had in addition to my nity to experiment with various subjects profession, child, and political work other (such as physics, math, and history of the appointments and service, since the nur- Middle Ages). Her biographical note sery school required parental initiative and makes clear how important it is to try out responsibility. But it taught me an invalua- different areas at a university level before ble lesson about professional mothers‘ sit- deciding in which to settle, and therefore uation‖ (282). with which deliberateness she made her One additional difference that is to choice of major once in Germany. Irene a certain extent in the nature of things can Dölling and Hildegard Maria Nickel were be described as follows: the younger the both socialized in the East German educa- women are, the more often they refer to tional system, and Dölling was already a mutual interaction with each other, gestur- professor at Humboldt University before ing toward constructive discussion, shared reunification. Coming from various do- research and publication.These coalitions mains, they found in the humanities a led in 1979 to the founding of a women‘s niche for women‘s and gender studies and caucus within the German Sociological were able to institutionalize their efforts Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozio- after transition in the new German states. logie). Not all of the women represented in Among the academics presented we the book participated but all have certainly also find more than one controversy re- contributed in their own ways toward insti- garding theoretical or methodological ap- tutionalization of women‘s and gender proaches in women‘s and gender studies. research. Not all began by majoring in so- The Afterword briefly explains these but ciology―for the older women, that wasn‘t devotes more space to reporting on a group even possible. Some entered the field while whose task was to analyze not only content doing their doctorates and discovering the in gender and women‘s studies but also the theme of the individual in society. One field‘s institutionalization. On this level, at group, however, sees itself explicitly as issue is strengthening women‘s and gender doing women‘s and gender research in studies as an interdisciplinary field, on the terms of theory and methodology. Another one hand, and on the other, integrating underscores its specialization in one or insights the field has produced into sociol- more sociological sub-fields but links its ogy itself. In terms of content, ―the femin- special focus to analyses of gender rela- ist dilemma‖ (Ute Gerhard) in women‘s tions. and gender studies can be described thus: Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 39 traditional disadvantages women are between 36 and 45 years old, with more thought to labor under must be denied than 60 percent working in a major enter- while, simultaneously, women‘s position prise (> 500 employees or > €50 million in comparison to men must be considered annual turnover). (see Vogel 296)―and all this in light of Most of the female executives had reforms in higher education demanding above-average qualifications. 17.5 percent from every discipline ―impeccable profes- graduated from a university of applied sci- sionalism.‖ ences (Fachhochschule) and more than 70 percent were either university graduates

German Women Executives (Universität) or had a Ph.D. (Promotion) or a State doctorate (Habilitation). For the Lotte Habermann-Horstmeier majority, self-confidence and assertiveness were the most important qualities that a Overview of Habermann-Horstmeier, female executive must have to attain a Lotte in co-operation with Albrecht, leadership position within an organisa- Kathrin, Bettina Braun, Eva Ganter & tional hierarchy. And to remain at this Maria Thierer. Karrierehindernisse für level, respondents stressed, they had to be Frauen in Führungspositionen. Ergeb- both assertive and cooperative. Their pri- nisse einer empirischen Studie an 300 mary aim was to achieve financial inde- Frauen aus dem deutschen Mittel- und pendence through their work; secondary Topmanagement. [German Women Ex- aims were gaining knowledge, wisdom and ecutives in Middle- and Top-Man- personal independence. agement. Report on the Glass Ceil- One perhaps contradictory finding, ing―Results of an Empirical Study of however, was that two thirds of respon- 300 Women Managers]. Schriftenreihe, dents had not consciously planned their Vol. I des Steinbeis Technologietransfer- career while more than fifty percent of the zentrums (STZ) - Unternehmen & Füh- youngest executives (aged from 25 to 35) rungskräfte. Villingen-Schwenningen, 2007, had not done so. About 80 per- pp. 165. ISBN 978-3-932824-12-8. cent―especially the younger ones―did not recommend specialist university In economic, administrative and courses for women in technical subjects. scientific communities in Germany today, More than 80 percent emphasized the im- equal opportunities for men and women in portance of female career networks. Yet management do not exist. Because political only about 30 percent said such networks measures intended to redress this inequal- had been useful in their own careers, ity often miss their mark, we thought it whereas nearly 40 percent did not even important to ask women executives to as- know that these networks existed when sess their own career obstacles. they were on their way up. Our empirical study "Career obsta- Most respondents worked between cles for female executives" was planned 51 and 60 hours a week. Single and child- and delivered in 2006 by STZ Companies less women had longer hours; most moth- & Managers in cooperation with Furtwan- ers put in between 41 and 60 hours a week gen University. The survey defines women yet had to take long business trips as fre- in leading positions as those in senior and quently as childless women. Most had been middle management who were contacted absent (due to illness et cetera) only zero to mainly via e-mail to women‘s networks, three days in the last year, and of interest companies, administrative institutions, here: married women had the shortest ab- clinics and universities. Altogether, more sence from work; divorced women the than 300 women completed the e-mail longest. questionnaires consisting of 50 questions. Approximately 80 percent of re- More than 50 percent of respondents were spondents were in a long-term relationship Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 40

(married or co-habiting) and 42 percent Nearly 90 percent of respondents had children. In recent times, the age at thought that parental leave longer than one first delivery had risen. Most mothers year could harm further career develop- worked in education and research. One ment. Moreover, around 30 percent be- third of managers, when asked about pri- lieved that part time work would result in vate choices, responded that external cir- fundamental harm to career prospects. In cumstances were responsible for their cur- the case of part-time work longer than one rent family situation, especially the year, 40 percent believed it would have an younger ones. Only 17 percent did not immediate negative effect on promotion. want to have a family at all. Nonetheless, Contributing positively to career many respondents claimed that their cur- development, emotional support from part- rent career was more important than start- ners or families ranked high; unmarried ing a family. Still, about 30 percent of sin- executives received significant emotional gles would like to have children even support from friends. Still, on the other though some also mentioned that they feel side, 44 percent said their career had had a it is already too late. Approximately 30 negative effect on their social lives. Still, percent of the childless women could not almost 65 percent said it had had no nega- imagine having children without a steady tive or positive effects; for mothers in par- relationship. ticular this seemed to be the case. Nearly all said that sufficient child- Nearly 85 percent of the women, care in Germany is only possible with the when asked if they ever considered them- help of a partner, grandparents, nannies, selves ―lone warriors‖ said ―yes.‖ Of those, au-pairs or housekeepers. Less than a quar- more than 50 percent described this feeling ter of the mothers interviewed had the op- as continuous or frequent, a response portunity to use a crèche or a day-care cen- prevalent among single women and those ter for their children. There are simply not having consciously planned their career. enough operational childcare centers and Most wanted to retire only when forced to too few places for the children. Most fe- so do for reasons of poor health. But the male executives required flexible working desire for children, too much work-related conditions (referring to place and time) and stress, workplace bullying and an em- complained that even in cases where the ployer's expectation of rising occupational company permitted executive flex-time, mobility were also reasons to consider end- they were not expected to claim it. ing their careers. Above all, these female executives considered the incompatibility of family and career as well as the preference given to male competitors as the main obstacle for women in the path from middle to senior management. Additional factors were, in many cases, lack of assertiveness, lack of a straight-line career path, and lack of assistance by specialist female career networks. In summary, the study shows that companies in Germany do not offer sufficient support for women executives wanting to combine managerial success with family life. Because parental leave and part-time jobs are seen as having a detri- mental effect on career, these opportunities are rarely taken. Additionally, the prefer- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 41 ence given to male competitors, women‘s deutschsprachiger Epik und Dramatik von frequent lack of courage to take risks and, Autorinnen (1730-1900) [Dictionary of in many cases, women‘s lack of self-pro- Women Authors of Epic and Drama in motion play a major role in blocking their German] is that it concerns itself far more way to the top. with the works themselves than with their Thus targeted and early information authors. Among other advantages, that along with support for women students by means you can browse through the ex- female networks could be helpful in nur- pertly narrated tales. Well-known academ- turing future female executives. Gender ics present a full three hundred and forty- studies should form part of the school and three titles composed by 170 women au- university curriculum. From a young age, thors over a period of 170 years. Many girls should be encouraged to gain mastery contributions come from English-speaking in technical and scientific subjects. This in countries, which is no surprise given that turn should ease entry into lucrative and German gender studies has been inspired influential career paths in the economy of by the USA where the field is more the future. broadly developed and taken more seri- However, despite awareness that ously than in Germany. graduates from the American Seven Sisters schools realize above average rates of pro- Voyage of Discovery to Charlotte Birch- fessional success, German female execu- Pfeiffer. tives do not recommend special female Each entry follows a pattern. Fol- universities or courses of study. These lowing a comprehensive exposition of con- women think it necessary first to establish tent and literary critical as well as histori- more state-run and operational childcare cal reception, the text is placed in its origi- centers with longer and more flexible nal context and then re-visioned as it is opening hours for children of all ages. read today, often by including known They also stress the need for more flexible feminist interpretations. That is, context is care facilities on evenings and weekends privileged but not in the usual way that and, to promote family-friendly executive relates a work to its author‘s biography. opportunities, flexible working conditions. And both praise and condemnation are scarce. The accompanying CD ROM also permits quick access to desired individuals. What Women are Writing In my view, the Dictionary makes a perfect gift for anyone concerned with Ruth Klüger German women‘s literature before the Trans. Tobe Levin twentieth century. But beyond that, it provides book lovers with a wonderful oppor- Review of Loster-Schneider, Gudrun tunity for exploration. and Gaby Pailer, eds. Lexikon deutsch- Who hasn‘t heard the old canard, sprachiger Epik und Dramatik von Auto- that women are born incapable of writing rinnen (1730 – 1900). [Dictionary of drama? The collection overflows with Women Authors of Epic and Drama in comedies, tragedies, plays of all kinds, German (1730 – 1900)]. Tübingen, Ba- historical, Biblical, and socio-critical, with sel: A. Francke Verlag, 2006, pp. 491, authors ranging from Gottsched to Ebner- ISBN 978-3-7720-8189-7 and 1 CD-Rom. Eschenbach. Comedies penned by the for- Review originally appeared in die Die mer sound like amusing anecdotes. True, literarische Welt, 6 January 2007, p. 7. much of the drama was intended to be read

It‘s true. In the last decade many rather than performed, if it even escaped the desk drawer, because throughout the reference books have appeared that offer th access to famous as well as little known entire 19 century women in public con- women writers. What is new in the Lexikon tinued to be thought disreputable. Still, Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 42

Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, whom Heine ap- At the other end of the spectrum, Empress peared to envy, as well as others wrote for Catherine the Second of Russia makes her the stage, taking their places among the cameo appearance as author of moralistic most successful dramatists of the century. tales. One of Birch-Pfeiffer‘s pieces was per- The fact that so many of the authors formed 123 times at Vienna‘s Burg Thea- came from nobility is striking, percentage- ter and had taken as its storyline, not coin- wise a far higher representation than a- cidentally, a narrative by a woman, George mong men who as authors tended to come Sand. from the bourgeoisie. This probably results Tales of a Russian Empress. from bourgeois women suffering under Socially-critical engagement can repressive patterns of thought, household increasingly be found, starting in 1848 duties and time spent sewing, as a task with Fanny Lewald whom Sigrid Bausch- forced on them, and they therefore lacked inger calls ―the most important representa- the leisure and stubbornness required by tive of emancipation of her age‖ in Ger- writing. Not that the noble women had it many. Also associated with socio-critical much easier, but this class was spared prose is Bertha von Suttner whose 1889 some of the middle-class woman‘s bur- novel Die Waffen nieder [Down with dens, and their households provided both Arms] brought her a Nobel Peace Prize in more money and more freedom to be ‗ec- 1905. Often the politically active are male centric‘ and engage in ‗unfeminine‘ pur- figures, but as the century draws to a close, suits. more and more female writers demonstrate awareness of women‘s disadvantages in the public and private spheres. They treat the theme not as they did earlier, covertly, but openly and targeted toward increasing emancipation. With so many tales from the same era, readers obtain a developmental vision of the Zeitgeist and an overview of the period, a perspective impossible with individual works. In this collection we also find the first girls‘ books, often tagged for ‗grown- up girls‘ (and therefore not children‘s literature). These include Clementine Helms‘ Backfischen‟s Sorrows and Joys; Johanna Spyris‘ Sina. A Tale for Young Girls; and

Emmy von Rhodens‘ boarding-school novel, Der Trotzkopf [Stubborn] (Yes, the Whoever thought that women in the first volume of the well-loved series was 18th century rarely published and were sel- published in the 19th century.) The Dic- dom successful will find an eye-opener tionary also includes those highly success- here regarding the amount, breadth, and ful writers of so-called light reading originality of literature penned by German- [Unterhaltungsliteratur] like (Nataly von) speaking women. It‘s easy enough to con- Eschstruth and the often criticized Eugenie clude from the introductions and summa- Marlitt, well known, notorious and inti- rized narratives that many of the works mately linked to ―Gartenlaubenkultur‖ or should be brought back and made available an aspect of bourgeois culture [Gar- to contemporary readers. tenlaube: the first 19th century mass- produced German magazine with strongly bourgeois connotations. Translator‘s note]. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 43

The Avant-Garde’s Avant- lucky enough to evade equally prevalent Garde: Hedwig Dohm brutal threats and drugs. In sum, what proponents really promote is an understanding Rolf Löchel among men that buying sex is normal. The logical result is an increase in demand Trans. Tobe Levin which leads to an increase in force. Review of Rohner, Isabel & Nikola Dohm disagrees with organized Müller, eds. Hedwig Dohm – Ausge- whores who claim prostitution is sacro- wählte Texte. Ein Lesebuch zum Jubi- sanct and counter all criticism by claiming läum des 175. Geburtstages mit Essays discrimination. Dohm, not blind to the fact und Feuilletons, Novellen und Dialogen. that women can collude in destroying their Aphorismen und Briefen. [Hedwig own honor, called prostitution a ―disgust- Dohm—Selected Texts. A Reader to ing caricature of the erotic‖ that Celebrate the 175th Anniversary of Her represented one of ―the darkest moments in Birth with Essays, Serials, Novellas, Di- human history,‖ a ―mark of Cain distorting alogues, Aphorisms and Letters]. Berlin: the face of the earth, so repellent that its Trafo Verlag, 2006, pp. 317, ISBN Medusa‘s gaze makes the heart shudder.‖ 3896265598. Originally published as Why? Because men saw in the prostitute „Vorkämpferin und Vordenkerin. Hedwig all women at the ―lowest level‖ of exis- Dohm, Feministin der ersten Stunde, wird tence. zum 175. Geburtstag beschenkt“ in litera- Now, one possible response is to turkrititk. de No 9, September 2006 „Fe- allow that this may be true but also to insist minismus― Geburtstag. that individuals be free to deal with their http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/reze own dignity however they wish. For if a nsion.php?rez_id=9804. woman insists on degrading herself, shouldn‘t she have the right? There‘s a From time to time an earlier gen- caveat, however. The prostitute isn‘t de- eration births a visionary, and even while grading herself alone. Instead, the institu- thinking they follow in her footsteps, those tion, a product of sexism, degrades society born later fall behind their ancestor. One of in that it also promotes sexism. ―What Germany‘s pioneering feminists, Hedwig [men] experience in the brothel throws its Dohm, enjoys this type of posthumous shadow over marriage,‖ Dohm already acknowledgement, in particular when her noted at the debut of the twentieth century. views on prostitution are compared with But not only are the wives and girlfriends those of feminists today who insist it is a of johns affected. All women are, and all profession like any other and try to enlist men as well, no matter how distanced from clients in the struggle against the coerced such transactions each one feels. sale of sex. It may be unintentional, but in Criticism of prostitution was an im- nearly all media and many minds, the ap- portant element in feminist Hedwig proach succeeds in strengthening a pre- Dohm‘s thinking but by far not the only existing sexist image of women while also issue close to her heart. She was also a vitiating arguments opposing pornography critic of marriage and perhaps even more and sexist advertising. Because the sex articulate against the ideological elevation market is demand-driven, advocates for of maternity and its ―inherent lie,‖ that normalizing the industry may manage to mothers alone are ―born to raise their oppose forced prostitution subjectively, but children,‖ a trump in the patriarchal hand objectively they contribute to it as their dealt out against the women‘s movement. trivialization of its harm lures increasing But even a ―cursory glance‖ at the nursery numbers of young women and girls naïve run by mothers should make it clear that enough to swallow the proffered false mommies make ―the worst educators‖ of promises and lies should they have been their children. Why? They reveal ―a nearly Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 44 boundless ignorance‖ of their own child‘s An untiring feminist, Hedwig character, a lack of awareness that can only Dohm not only wrote essays, theoretical shock the compassionate on-looker. articles and innumerable popular pieces for For Dohm, marriage and the over- magazines but also literary works: novels, valuation of motherhood stood high on the novellas, short stories and comedies. The list of candidates for societal change. Yet latter were praised by Theodore Adorno. women were everywhere urged to bear Her „obvious talent as a playwright,‖ more children, and legislation promoted Adorno wrote, „is revealed in her precise heterosexual union as the only privileged knowledge of modern society, her ability type of partnership, thereby discriminating to seize the comic moment, make it origi- against all other forms, including remain- nal or at least appear so, and then concen- ing single. trate all her energies in igniting around it The autodidact Hedwig Dohm, who an on-going firework display of jokes and regretted her whole life having received an puns.‖ Dohm pens ―really comic‖ lines. insufficient formal education, was also She had little to say about her own vehement in support of women‘s right to creative work. In a December 1902 letter enter the sciences and to enjoy all other to feminist colleague Anna Pappritz, how- educational opportunities and institutions. ever, Dohm appeared self-critical, noting Against all those who argued that scientific that Sibilla Dalmar (1896) is the first of occupations went against feminine nature, her fictions she found worthy. Whatever Dohm proved to be a sharp-tongued critic. came before in terms of ―belles lettres‖ And in her essay on ―The scientific eman- was no more than ―bloody dilettantism.‖ cipation of women,‖ she anticipated Vir- Similarly, she found in her early feminist ginia Woolf‘s deployment of Shakes- pamphlets a ―preppy ton‖ that angered her. peare‘s sister, though in Dohm the figure Another letter written in 1907 to Rosika was named Frederike Schiller. Schwimmer complained about the tenden- Dohm also preferred the term ―fe- cy, still alive today, to read her novel A minist‖ to the label ―women‘s affirmative Soul‟s Destiny [Schicksale einer Seele] as activist‖ [Frauenrechtlerin] with its ―odd autobiography: ―I wrote nothing about my sound‖ coined by the opposing camp and marriage in that book―out of considera- intended to work ―ironically with an insi- tion for my daughter.‖ nuating after-taste.‖ In innumerable publications, she in turn would write about ―men‘s affirmative activism‖ and its ―devi- lish viewpoint concerning the spiritual inferiority of the female sex.‖ And if she sensed anti-feminist propaganda, her ―reso- lute feminism‖ spared no one, neither female authors nor the otherwise greatly admired Nietsche whose misogynist stupidi- ties ―astonished‖ Dohm. Thus, in one of her most successful books, The Anti- feminists, in a chapter called ―Woman against woman‖ in which Laura Marholm, Ellen Key and Lou Andreas-Salomé appear, she also devotes a section to Nietsche. Counted among the ―orthodox on the woman question,‖ Nietsche reveals in The quotes come from a volume of his ―dispirited‖ chatter about women that, texts by Dohm recently edited by Nikola unlike Socrates, he doesn‘t know what he Müller and Isabel Rohner which no self- doesn‘t know. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 45 respecting feminist library or otherwise ists? And isn‘t this equally true for the interested reader should be without. Cele- world of opera and orchestra? Female in- brating the 175th anniversary on 20 Sep- terpreters are there, too, in record numbers, tember 2006 of Dohm‘s birth with essays, not to mention women composers. serials, novellas, aphorisms and letters, the Yet a historical survey quickly re- book reveals the skillful hand of two con- veals that for centuries before the twen- scientious editors who did meticulous re- tieth, women did not enter the historical search. record, either as singers or composers. Therefore, announcement of Müller Reasons abound; many are banal; and re- and Rohner‘s plans for a comprehensive searchers in other disciplines have already edition of Dohm‘s work is welcome. In exposed women‘s consistent association 2007, Sibilla Dalmar and Schicksale einer with the trivial. Music, which afforded Seele are scheduled to appear as the first professional status, required education, two of 15 volumes. This is indeed an ambi- built stature, and kept women out, either by tious project and certainly the best present direct exclusion or by conflicting demands on the anniversary of her birth for a wom- in their daily lives. One example of the an called the ―pioneer activist and thinker former: the Papacy‘s refusal to allow of a new image of women,‖ as noted in a women to sing in church which led to 1914 volume dedicated to Dohm. It is also ―business‖ with castrated boys who then a gift to readers as the ―se-lected texts‖ performed the alto and soprano choral make you hungry for more. parts, or, to illustrate the latter, normative expectations of women‘s self-effacement

in certain classes. Women, Music, Culture

Susanne Rauscher

Trans. Tobe Levin.

Review of Koldau, Linda Maria. Frauen – Musik – Kultur: ein Handbuch zum deutschen Sprachgebiet der frühen Neu- zeit. [Women―Music―Culture: A Hand- book on German-speaking Regions in the Renaissance]. Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2005, pp. 1188, ISBN 978-3-412-24505-4. Originally published as “Frauen – Mu- sik – Kultur: ein Handbuch zum deutschen Sprachgebiet der frühen Neuzeit“ in Feministische Studien. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Frauen- und Geschlech- terforschung/ No. 2/24, November 2006: 351-352. Given this background, the present text should be lauded, not only as a pioneer Women and music: the combina- effort but a work of Sisyphus as well. True, tion seems so obvious that you may won- other authors have also approached the der what purpose a new handbook on the subject matter―Eva Weisweiler in her subject could possibly serve. For haven‘t book on Women Composers from the Mid- we left the era of compensatory research dle Ages to the Present (1999), for in- behind? And if we turn to music produc- stance. But Weisweiler offered a first tion, don‘t we encounter a vast number of overview of themes and looked only at women who earn an adequate living and, composers. Koldau‘s view is broader and, in some cases, are considered major art- therefore, more suggestive. She considers Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 46 the entire musical field from the Renais- Prima Donna: Between Love sance to the present to assess women‘s and Madness influence on the development of the art itself. Heide Seele Koldau examines a wealth of pri- Trans. Tobe Levin mary sources that promote a detailed questioning of women‘s musical creativity. To Review of Gebhardt, Volker. Frauen in illuminate German women‘s influence th th der Oper. Große Stimmen – große Rollen. from the 15 through the 17 centuries, the [Women in Opera. Grand Voices― author explores feminist research in histo- Grand Roles]. München: Elisabeth Sand- ry, theology, literary studies and other dis- mann Verlag, pp, 224. ISBN 978-39 380- ciplines. Noblewomen‘s diaries are ex- 45022. Originally published as „Prima- posed in her pages; letters from convents donnen zwischen Liebe und Wahnsinn“ in as well. Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, 18 February 2007. These and similar first-person accounts show without a doubt how involved In a new volume from Elisabeth women were with the day-to-day making Sandmann publishers, Volker Gebhardt of music. They produced it, composed it, presents his research on women and opera. and ‗patronized‘ it. And just as their bio- Worlds separate Dido from Lulu. In graphies varied enormously, so, too, did Englishman Henry Purcell‘s ―Dido and the kind of influence they exercised on the Aeneas,‖ the Queen of Carthage mourns world of music. Koldau looks at the nobili- the betrayal of her lover and dies in the ty (great and small); at religious; at the arms of her female companion Belinind, bourgeoisie. Among the latter, conditions while in ―Lulu,‖ Alban Berg presents a weighing on married women differed from heroine whose utter lack of soul smothers those on single women in musical families the smallest ember of audience empathy. who, at times, became professional musi- By taking inspiration from a thirty year old cians, playing in processionals at court or Wedekind play whose protagonist was performing in convents. These female art- simply incapable of experiencing spiritual ists also enjoyed an extraordinary degree pain, the composer created a wholly new of emancipation. Traveling in troupes, they type of female figure. were expected to possess not only musical but also acting talent. Many played one or more instruments. Against this background, in the second half of the 17th century, the opera singer pioneered a new image of female success on stage. As the genre developed most rapidly in Italy, most divas of the time were Italian. Yet, the opera singer became the first model for Germany, too, of the independent professional woman earning her living by music. If sufficiently gifted, she could rise to enjoy the fruits of stardom and income as a diva, and this took place long before women were welcome to join men in the orchestra. Volker Gebhardt‘s new book on The Handbook, in sum, provides a Women in Opera analyses these female treasure trove for further research on wom- leads, describes the operas in which they en in music. appeared, introduces their composers and reports on productions. What clearly emer- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 47 ges is a history of change in women‘s roles influence to Verdi‘s ―Traviata‖ and and social position over the last 500 years. Strauss‘ ―Rosenkavalier.‖ For if we leave aside the magic of elegant Intrigue. Seduction. What would sopranos, protagonists represent their opera be without conflict? Yet social and epochs‘ female joys, fears, triumphs and political developments also leave their defeats. mark on the genre, as the chapter on wom- A freelance writer in Berlin, Volker en‘s self-emancipation in Beethoven and Gebhardt knows opera well. This book Cherubini shows. Now we find women proves it as it moves majestically from who stride the stage as self-directed sub- baroque, with its affect and passion, to the jects, not enthralled to men. Quite differ- ―devil women‖ on the modern stage. But ent, however, is the romantic era. For in- as a connoisseur of music and art, the au- stance, in Weber‘s ―Freischütz,‖ the he- thor is interested not only in the historical roine is damned to ―holy idleness,‖ while survey. He finds equally fascinating the in the golden age of Bel Canto (Rossini, ―grand voices and grand roles‖ of his sub- Bellini, Donizetti) prima donnas are torn title, brought to life in the text‘s many illu- between love and madness. The text pays strations of actual performances and tribute not only to the heroines of a Berlioz sketches of the great interpreters of the last grand opera, but also bows to those in Ri- fifty years. The narrative therefore escapes chard Wagner‘s musical dramas and the capture by the historical and moves with great figures in Verdi without neglecting grace onto the stages of today. emancipated protagonists among the real- Normally, Monteverdi‘s ―Orfeo‖ is ists, in Tchaikovsky‘s ―Eugen Onegin‖ or celebrated as the inaugural piece in a new Bizet‘s ―Carmen,‖ and concludes with the genre, but seven years before Orfeo‘s femmes fatales as in Strauss (Salome) or premier at the Ducal Palace in Mantua in Puccini (Turandot). 1600, the forgotten Jacopo Peri had already In the end, however, the author innovated in ―Euridice.‖ He replaced with notes how the earlier splendor of women‘s song the spoken text and linked lyrical roles has, since the Second World War, scenes to one another by orchestral contri- been lost to operatic intrigue no longer butions. Regarding the ―bitchy prima don- always ignited by men. nas,‖ as far as Volker is concerned they were no better than the castrati: vain, lack- Introducing … ing in collegiality, addicted to fame and hungry for money. Individual singers swal- The Center for Creative Writing lowed up the roles they were meant to & Theatre for Conflict Resolu- represent. Händel was among the first to tion oppose this ‗star‘ system by creating more complex and differentiated female figures. Christiana Lambrinidis

Following ―reformed opera‖ as pio- The Center for Creative Writing & neered by Gluck, one of the earliest com- Theatre for Conflict Resolution. An posers avidly interested in theory, it is with Overview. «Η επινόηση της γραμματικής ή Mozart‘s women that the truly human της Αμστερνταμ» first of its kind in Greece, breaks into the genre. Each of Mozart‘s provides a space for creativity, theory operas looks carefully at the fictional fe- building and international exchange to ad- male figure as she first appears in the book. vance creative writing and theatre de- This procedure benefits, for instance, the ployed for peace. Committed to social Countess in ―Figaro,‖ as her destiny is no change, the center organizes and imple- longer determined by ancient myth but ments seminars, workshops, writing pro- rather by the infidelity of her husband, jects, performances with voiceless and whom she succeeds in managing nonethe- voiced populations of the periphery and of less. Here Gebhardt draws a direct line of Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 48 the center. It aims to establish a tradition of No Longer Asking Daddy creative writing by overturning the unspeakable through textualities that can be Christiana Lambrinidis published and/or performed in and out of Review of Stratigopoulou, Angeliki. Δεν conventional cultural settings. θα ξαναπωτήσω τον μπαμπά. [I Will Ask The Center for Creative Writing & Daddy No More]. Athens: Melani Edi- Theatre for Conflict Resolution, located tions, 2006. across the street from Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens, employs the conceptual tradi- We find ourselves inside the Arcade tion of Greece in its methodology geared to of Books, a privately run organization that break down barriers between right and gathers book-sellers into the center of Ath- privilege, intelligence and experience, ar- ens, creating a successful and on-going ticulation and invention. book-fair. Daily, book-related events are The Center for Creative Writing & organized here in a space now familiar Theatre for Conflict Resolution collabo- space to the publishing world in Greece. rates with individuals, cultural organiza- The Center for Creative Writing & tions, NGO's, local government, educa- Theatre for Conflict Resolution presents tional institutions, to carry out its writing one of its authors schooled in a feminist projects with literate and illiterate women, pedagogy of creative writing. Many people borderland populations in conflict, street who have steadfastly fought against the kids, immigrants, refugees, professionals, field as a topos of theory and practice are youth workers, university professors, chil- present tonight as are many others who dren from elementary inner city schools, participate in writing workshops abroad adolescent boys and girls from underprivi- and in secret, not to betray the ―divine call- leged urban areas and the border towns ing of writing.‖ Many who cover book between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, reviews in the main literary and non- students, health workers, educators, psy- literary publications are also dispersed in chotherapists. the crowded auditorium. The Center for Creative Writing & A new book has come out: Angeliki Theatre for Conflict Resolution‘s activities Stratigopoulou‘s8 I Will Ask Daddy No include: More. Athens: Melani Editions, 2006. A • Creative Writing Seminars new kind of writing has been developed in • One-to-One Tutoring for Manu between the unspeakable, family-history, script Completion writing selves, and memory. Aware of the • Creative Writing Summer Academy patriarchal, heterosexual, hegemonic • Writing Projects voices inside the Arcade of Books, I have • Theatre for Conflict Resolution staged a phantasmatic battleground, a dis- Performances closure of what has attempted to keep the • Comparative Literary Theory Center's methodology silenced and en- Women's Seminar closed for the last decade. Because of the • Writers Meet New Writers nature of Feminist Europa. Review of • Salons Books, because of its function among • Conferences / Colloquia • SHOUT: e-journal for creative 8 writing Angeliki Stratigopoulou works at the Book Ar- cade as director of outreach programs. She has a The following piece, in a style unique on child. The book, I Will Ask Daddy No More is her Feminist Europa. Review of Books‟s first novel and was nominated for a book award in 2006 by literary journal (de)kata. Angeliki Strati- pages, was submitted by the director of gopoulou has been a student of the Center for Crea- the Center, Christiana Lambrinidis. tive Writing & Theatre for Conflict Resolution since 1999.

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 49 feminist scholars, because of the whisper- I am the one you asked to keep you a ing milieu of Greek feminist literature, I child. Isn't that the reason you challenge chose to translate my speech and publish it my emergence from the place of the amid the European scholarship of women's dead? writing. I need to learn I cannot subvert you. If I am torn to pieces, I become a totem and writing becomes a taboo. It becomes prohibited The invention of grammar or of Am- and I become an accomplice to the prohibi- sterdam tion. I will not eat you then. I will let you exist ―Promise me something that continues before the crowd of readers to write. daddy and I promise I will not grow up‖ You do not seem to survive your over- (p. 59). whelming sense of guilt. Remove your head from the underworld so You consent to my writing but only as the that I can see it and make me a promise. time of abandonment. And I, before the crowd of readers, will Abandonment is not subversion. I am ask once again to become your daughter. not interested in your abandonment. I By the time they comprehend and feel fear am invested in the practice of my dis- I will have called for my departure. Devour course, the authority of invention. me and turn me into material of writing Mommy is invested in the desire of narra- amid the jaws of your discourse. Devour tion. Who of you determines the space of me and save me from the crowd. I know language? I am going to be eaten anyway you must dismember me alive and then so why not give the crowd of readers the proceed to consume me in their presence. affirmation of homophagia as participation Remove your head from the underworld so in the act of writing? Isn't that a primary that I can see it and come to you. prohibition? The affirmation of homo- Father do you hear me? phagia as writing, I remove from you since Calm down. The readers are agitated. I have invited you to devour me, assigning Shift their state of mind with your book to my self attributes of a materiality con- and I will come. structed mainly from the power invention Yes, but let them see you. holds. Why? Father do you hear me? Because if they don't they will not under- Do you need the opus to conjure up an- stand the art of invention. And if they do other activity from that of interpreta- not understand I will be consumed in vain. tion? Not true. If I devour you, you will be If I accept that interpretation results from protected. You will be able to return to cohesiveness, then I lose the authority of that obscure kindness in between the invention. underworld and earthly surroundings. Your loss is my return. I will leave in- So, you want me in between your jaws as terpretation to you but I will keep inven- the space in-between? tion for me. I do, but like that, I bestow on you the If I lose invention then interpretation is an kindness of a totem; and that can be addiction, an obsessive construct that construed as safety. promises to change void into the function- Then you are not father at all, you are ality of narrative. If that happens I return to mommy; the pre-oedipal monster who by the space of the mother without any sub- murdering me will sanction the desire of stantial negotiation with you. narration. By devouring me, you will ac- There is the possibility of rendering; you quire the space of in-between―the space could call homophagia interpretation. If of transference―but the subverting dis- you do that, then the crowd of readers placement of language will defeat you. will surrender themselves, without guilt, Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 50 to their desired cannibalisms ― within The point where invention becomes in- the opus called ―your book.‖ Your book terpretation. will become an empty space wherein Amsterdam is I after I allow you to con- perpetual cannibalisms will prove its sume me. She is the textual subject we read permeability and its exemplary nature and become textual subjects; we do not for the lifting of guilt. read and remain ourselves. Like that my book becomes an opus of So Amsterdam is the boundary between trajectories where systems of choice lose us. Are you suggesting that I devour her sight of their co-dependency on assumed instead of you? practicing of choices as a much-invested You are much more precise than I am used construction of non-guilt. to. What I am telling you is that if there is Isn't this enough for you? To define the no Amsterdam, I and all of us are the de- possibility of ever-lasting promise? voured children of the original father. This is your way to rule, not mine. So it is absolutely certain I want Amster- I have mother promising she will suc- dam and not you? ceed in subverting me; in doing that she It is possible I will withstand betrayal by keeps her alliance to you even though bartering the boundaries of a totem. If you she always fails; which in essence is ir- eat her, then I am not slowly turning into relevant because she is able to maintain totem and writing into taboo. her space in language by simply exercis- How wrong you are! If I eat her she ex- ing her promise. ists as an agent of invention. I already allow for chapters inside my book I don't know what you are talking about. where I succumb to my acceptance of guilt Amsterdam, for me, is the empty body as ―It Is Not My Fault‖: ―It is not my fault trespassing into the infinite spirit. And the when Spring comes and most people think book that displays her is the theatre of it is for the best. It is not their fault either. writing. It is not my fault I understand what a bad ―Our arduous goal is to clarify the pri- thing Spring is. It is not my fault that mo- mary function within which we make to ment comes when the crack is opened and exist for us, or employ, space, object or you see through it everything you always functional instrument, and to describe wanted to see. It is not my fault the crack the body as the space where this appro- shuts with a thud and you are left half in- priation takes place...‖ side half outside unable to decide. It is not Do not talk to me as Merleau-Ponty; it is Spring's fault it is so indecisive. When it you. I am not going to be consumed to grows up it might learn how much that reward the void as the acquired space of cost, but by then it will be called some- the ―arduous.‖ The only instrument you thing else and it will assume it is to blame actually have to subjugate me and stop me for everything‖ (p. 104). from asking you to devour me in front of But these things are not your own; they them is the obscure kindness in between are inventions you allow them to see. the underworld and earthly surroundings. So now that we have reached somewhere, So you do accept that books are the now that we both comprehend it is a war theatres of writing. between us, you take me back to the au- I accept writing is a theory of chaos. thority of a pledge. So interpreting is You consider theatre chaos? promising. I consider theatre to be language and the Father do you hear me? actions it instigates the only possibility I am not leaving, don't worry. I expect perhaps for subversion. to devour you. In the meantime, while So you confiscate the power of language, you are waiting, while the crowd of and thus of invention by saying that lan- readers is waiting, we can talk about guage itself consents to both its subver- Amsterdam. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 51 sion and its destruction to occur within Women in Politics―Hungary it. 1990-2006. An Overview with If we actively participate in homophagia, International Comparisons. our own actuality, intimate boundaries become permeable, infinite―especially Katalin Koncz since the entire construction of the book I bring forth is based on the removal of guilt. Summary of Koncz, Katalin. Nök a I want to tell you what Amsterdam is politikai hatalomban. Számvetés a because I do not believe that you can, in rendszerváltástól napjainkig. [Women in any way, overcome me or deprive me of Politics. From the Start of Regime something that is mine. I believe Amster- Change to the Present]. Budapest: Mag- dam is the unrest of a system―let us call yar Nöi Karrierfejlesztési Szövetség. it family―informed by the perception of [Hungarian Association of Women's the theory of chaos. It is a transferring Career Development], 2006, pp. 452. screen―from interpreter to writer to ISBN 978 963 06 1709 3. reader―upon which the inherited order First published by WUNRN: of systems makes itself apparent. Don't http://www.neww.org.pl/en.php/news/new forget in ancient Greek the word XAΟΣ s/1.html?&nw=3421&re=2 (chaos) meant the primary void. The Approaching the turn of the cen- erroneous interpretation that followed tury, the Central European region became transformed the meaning of chaos to the scene of dramatic changes. Post-so- mean disorder. cialist countries embarked on a political So family is the primary void. The unbeat- and economic path that was new in every able system― that which contains but can- way. The most important aspects of regime not be contained. change in Hungary were democratization I never said anything like that. of society, alteration in the structure of You imply any which way to disorient me. ownership, and free reign given to devel- You wish for my extermination. Not sym- opment of a market economy leading to a bolically, or semantically, or imaginatively fundamental transformation not only in the any longer. You actually desire me extinct. political and economic spheres, but also in You cannot exist if I am the one to have interpersonal relationships within families. Amsterdam as the invention of rules, or Individuals found opportunities and per- rather as the depiction of unborn coher- spectives redefined. Though the scale of ences called grammar. But, daddy, I do winners and losers of this restructuring was have Amsterdam. I am the one who accepts not meant to be tipped along gender lines, the analysis of chaos and the possibility of some of the most obvious consequences of a staged exit as grammar becomes totem the changeover affected men and women within the taboo of extremity. I am the one in different ways. who accepts this is language and not inven- While in the more advanced half of tion. Am not I the one who calls you from the world the call for equal opportunity for the underworld and invents your voice to both genders in the social and political be heard? spheres has by now become reality, in Hungary the change in regime did not bring a substantial qualitative improvement in the approach to women's issues nor in the opportunities open to women in politics. Women‘s equality is not among political and economic priorities. As para- doxical as it may seem, the gradual exclusion of women from political decision-

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 52 making is a phenomenon of our democra- on the ratio of men to women within a par- tized society. In every one of the countries ticular population as its gauge. involved, following regime change, wom- The number of women in the cen- en were forced into the periphery of the tral government is negligible although, in political arena and nowhere else as bla- the wake of regime change, one woman tantly as in Hungary. was entrusted with the office of minister To ensure that social transforma- without portfolio, while today two women tion not disadvantage women more than it hold top government posts (Dr. Kinga has already done, the danger to women's Göncz and Dr. Mónika Lamperth). In the interests must be recognized and, corre- second layer there are 2 - 4 under-sec- spondingly, institutions engaged in serving retaries of state, and 4 - 5 deputy under- their interests must be strengthened. The secretaries of state who are women. While political sphere has a fundamental role to the government administration has been play in this respect that cannot be replaced steadily improving, the substantial setbacks nor relegated to any other sphere, since we are experiencing today, orchestrated by only this one has the means (legal, institu- the equal opportunity commission, have tional, and financial) indispensable for resulted in these institutions being rele- turning intent into reality. gated to a lower level of the hierarchy. Any Women are underrepresented in all policy for women in government is yet to sectors of political life. After regime be worked out. change, the number of female parliamen- The ratio of women leaders at the tarians was drastically reduced, and today, top of various parties and unions is also with its present ratio of women (10.6%), low. Simultaneously with regime change Hungary ranks 120th of 173 countries. This and as part of it, the women's movement discrepancy is equally glaring in compari- was pluralized, so that parties and unions son to European Union and post-socialist had sections dealing with women's issues. countries alike. The new era‘s first elected The women's organizations play a major Parliament had, in fact, no women at all in role in the recognition, popularization and the upper echelons of political office hold- safeguarding of women's interests. The ers. Although a breakthrough came in women's sections of the parties and unions, 2002, when Dr. Katalin Szili was elected in contrast, lack effective power, and the President of Parliament, women continue number of NGOs in the developing civil or to be underrepresented in committee lead- public sector dealing with women's issues ership, even fewer than MPs. is extremely low (189 out of 65 thousand). In accordance with international The civil sphere is under-financed and its trends, however, the number of women influence limited. Given the lack of gov- mayors exceeds the female percentage in ernment support and sufficient experience, Parliament. Opportunities for women in further organization along these lines is small towns and settlements are substan- difficult. The movements are not strong tially greater than in big towns and cities. enough to organize themselves as they Lower levels of local government provide direct their efforts and attention at the eve- entryways through which women can ac- ryday struggle for survival. Women in cess the political arena. And in this respect, general also show little interest, while the women are at an advantage when elections active nucleus has not yet found the com- are based on personal knowledge, since mon goals and programs that would make only personal contact can counteract the the mass of women spring into action. Fi- prejudice against them. Though women nally, cooperation between the feminist enjoy greater scope in forums of local de- movement and scientific-academic femin- cision-making than nationally, their ratio ism as well as the various women's organi- of participation still does not satisfy the zations representing different ideologies is principle of parity democracy, which relies next to nonexistent. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 53

Measured against their importance popular opinion is conservative and con- to society, women‘s insufficient participa- siders a wider participation of women in tion in decision-making bodies holds up a politics unnecessary. People trust women mirror to their place in the social order. To less than men, and as voters, they let the enable them to play a greater political role, country know it. changes on every level are called for, while From the point of view of educa- all politicians need to adopt a ―female tion, it is sufficient for women to partici- friendly‖ perspective. pate in politics. Other conditions, however, Clearly, political leadership is in- are not favorable. The level of women's sensitive to women's issues and women's employment has declined and is apprecia- equality. Demands for equal opportunity bly below the European Union average. and its major strategies worked out by the The sinking budgets of Hungarian families European Union can be found only in trac- and the burden of working men (if they es. If political leadership pays attention to have jobs at all) increasingly bind women the subject at all, it does so exclusively to the traditional role of homemaker, an with regard to population growth and the activity that in itself is becoming more and family, with disregard to special needs, more difficult to organize, leaving women expectations, and opportunities for women, little energy for family care, relaxation or conditions for their fulfillment and devel- hobbies. Conditions that could ease com- opment as human beings. Not seen by gov- bining work and homemaking are unsatis- ernment as a priority, women's policies factory (reduction of childcare networks, remain under-funded, ensuring that the out of date appliances, antiquated forms of European Union mandate for equal oppor- housekeeping, lack of quality services, and tunity continues unfulfilled, although the the high price of subscription meals). Union is more interested in economic sta- Women with families wanting to partici- bilization than in policing equality. Thus, pate in political decision-making find it lacking an impulse from outside, opportun- impossible without a reduction in dual du- ities for women take a back seat to eco- ties and without social assistance. nomic interests. The women's movement has not fo- Parliamentary and local elections cused on women's shared interests, and for also clearly indicate that results depend on lack of this common ground, its defined all participants: parties, nominees, and vot- aim is arbitrary. Given the present social ers. The parties do not nominate a suffi- environment, it is still too weak to become cient number of women to run for office; a factor in shaping contemporary politics. women do not accept nomination in suffi- Given their customary roles, women lack cient numbers; and the majority of voters ability to integrate themselves into the vote for male candidates. Unlike in leading manly world of power politics. The traits countries of the European Union, political to which they have been socialized as well parties in Hungary do not resort to ―posi- as competencies gained in school and at tive discrimination‖ in order to satisfy or work do not yet nourish successful politi- increase what might be considered the ac- cal careers. The present century, however, ceptable ratio of men to women in politics. may witness women‘s leadership bearing Political parties do not feel the negative fruit. effect of women's absence because there Regarding political opportunities are plenty of ―suitable‖ men for political open to women today, women's interests posts. Men‘s ability to achieve their aims can at best trickle into the political arena and capitalize on their connections is through narrow channels. As a result, fe- greater than that of women, and men in males are being left out of the redistribu- decision-making prefer to see other men in tion of political power. This leads to a pa- positions of power. Except for the young, radoxical situation, namely, that although metropolitan, educated layer of society, democracy is a basic requirement for Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 54 bringing the interests of special groups to more advanced European partners worked the surface and asserting them, a society in out in the 1980s. the process of democratization is pushing In the civil sphere―including women's the disadvantaged layers, including wom- organizations―it is hoped that self-organization en, to the periphery of the political sphere. will be recognized as the major means of To find alternatives when searching representing special interests and setting for change and opportunity, we must look limits on power. It is hoped that in the at the factors defining women‘s political wake of this new recognition, interest activity. The example of advanced market group networks will be more efficiently economies proves that speeding up integra- organized and make a point of representing tion of women and accelerating recognition and keeping on their agenda the need to that women should be integrated is the by- realize equal opportunities, part and parcel product of acknowledging mutual interests. of any democracy. The women's move- Pressured by European requirements, and ment will, hopefully, continue to gain in the wake of ratified treaties, the gov- strength, as women will come to under- ernment will hopefully see the need to en- stand that they are endangered, and it is gage a larger proportion of women in legis- hoped that women will join forces with lative processes. It will probably take the activists fighting for recognition and en- European Union's equal opportunities poli- forcement of their interests. They will cies to make the government alter its views hopefully define, from the body of com- on this issue because the forces that could mon interests, the aims and goals whose bring about change without outside pres- representation they can trust to willing sure are missing inside (knowledge and politicians―men and women both. preparedness, openness, moderation and On the basis of the above, we may self-restraint). assume that a more ―female friendly‖ social environment than what we are experiencing today will inspire all talented and qualified women to take up the cause of furthering and safeguarding women's interests in the interest of society. What they achieve may well convince political parties to nominate more women, and voters to vote for them in greater numbers. In this process, which will affect every member of society, education as consciousness-raising should play a major role.

Leading party organizations, during preparation for the elections, will, in the future, hopefully recognize the necessity of approaching the principle of parity democracy and will place more women candidates running for top office on their lists. Union leaders, too, should realize that their sphere of influence with regard to safeguarding interests will have to shift toward female employees and will reshape their policies in accordance with those of their Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 55

Principled opposition In 20th century Hungarian history you‘ll find hardly another person who Andrea Petõ fought more tenaciously against the politics of forgetting decreed from on high as Trans. Tobe Levin Júlia Rajk. After her husband‘s execution, Description of Petõ, Andrea. Geschlecht, she felt compelled to clear his name. As a Politik, und Stalinismus in Ungarn. Eine result, she became one of the era‘s most Biographie von Júlia Rajk. [Sex, Gender, steadfast proponents ―of memory‖ and one Politics and Stalinism in Hungary: A Bi- of the major figures in the developing op- ography of Júlia Rajk]. Studien zur Ge- position to the Kádár regime, grounds for schichte Ungarns, Bd. 12. Herne: Gab- seeing her life story as one with Hungary‘s riele Schäfer Verlag, 2007, pp. 214. civic history. ISBN 978-3-933337-43-6.

After 1945, the names of two public personalities were long taboo in Hun- gary. The first, László, was the post-war Hungarian minister who, following a show trial in 1949, was accused of ‗Titoism‘ and hanged. His rehabilitation and public burial became the overture to the 1956 revolution. The second personality whose name was taboo for many years was Imre Nagy, the nation‘s Prime Minister in 1956 at the time of the revolution. In 1958 he was sen- tenced to death; thirty years later, the transfer of his remains from an unmarked to an honorable grave signaled the opening of a new era. These two ‗burials‘ attained symbolic status in the collective mind. And in both incidents, family members or, more The book features a woman instru- specifically, the daughter of Imre Nagy and mental in forming her era with special em- the wife of László Rajk played a decisive phasis on aspects associated clearly with role: exactly as Greek theater teaches us, women. it‘s women‘s duty to ensure that family Although the methodology―oral his- members enjoy a proper burial. tory―sufficed in leading to other sources that To the ‗widow‘ Júlia Rajk, both were relied upon, the biography depends to these powerful men, Mátyás Rákosi and a large extent on interviews with family, János Kádár, who denied their victims a including Júlia Rajk‘s son, fellow prisoners grave and thereby hoped to extinguish their and comrades-in-arms. memory, were not only personal enemies Using interviews as the principal but also political opponents against whom resource, the author was able to describe one was duty-bound to fight―wholly in the life of an extraordinarily strong, inde- the spirit of Milan Kundera who under- pendent thinker for whom specific norms stood opposition to the Communist Party and values were simply non-negotiable. as ―the people‘s struggle against power for A sort of heroine of the Hungarian memory and against forgetting. opposition movement Rajk never accepted compromise with her husband‘s murderers

and continued to defy those for whom the motto ―the lesser evil‖ allowed collabora- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 56 tion with the Kádár regime. Rajk is, in con- bility of artists and writers who supported trast, a model of principled resistance. Nazism, Jelinek‘s play uses radical lan- From the perspective of the present, guage to unmask the Viennese tradition she is certainly an inspiration for any that sacralizes the actor. young women who wants to make a name Rita Svandrlik‘s study (―Conflicts‘ for herself in history. Typologies in some Prose Works: Die Liebhaberinnen and Oh Wildnis, oh Schutz

A Different Difference: Nobel vor ihr‖) considers discord in two prose pieces, Die Liebhaberinnen [Women as Laureate Elfriede Jelinek and a Lovers] (1975) and Oh Wildnis, oh Schutz New Critical Anthology vor ihr [Oh Wilderness!] (1985) underlin- ing the significant interconnection between Claudia Vitale gender and social tensions: every gender Review of Svandrlik, Rita, ed. Elfriede difference always relates to a socio-eco- Jelinek: una prosa altra, un altro teatro. nomic ―Fremdheit‖ [foreignness or, in the [Elfriede Jelinek: A Different Prose, a Brechtian sense, alienation]. Both gender Different Theatre]. Firenze: Firenze and social conflicts are linked through the University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-8453- most important clash in Jelinek‘s work, the 725-6; 978-88-8453-726-3. one with language itself. Renata Caruzzi‘s essay (―The Pow- A precious contribution to scholarly er of Words. Notes on Elfriede Jelinek and studies of Elfriede Jelinek, this book edited Elias Canetti‖) accounts for analogies be- by Rita Svandrlik contains six essays by tween Jelinek‘s and Canetti‘s desecrating Italian and foreign experts in gender stud- use of idiom. Although in different ways, ies on both the theatrical and prose produc- the typical demystifying traits of the two tion of the Austrian writer from a ―differ- authors‘ texts interrogate language itself ent‖ point of view. As the title suggests, all and its potential. Language criticism and essays focus on the principal aspect of El- scepticism, its fragmentation and distor- friede Jelinek‘s poetics, its ―otherness.‖ tion, express Jelinek‘s and Canetti‘s impla- The gender perspective supports and gives cable opposition to reality. significance to such a specific theme. Lucia Perrone Capano‘s paper Rita Calabrese‘s opening essay (―Linguistic and Visual Surfaces: texts for (―From the Margins of Hebraism. The Jelinek‘s ‗different theatre‘‖) emphasizes Patrilinear Writing of Elfriede Jelinek‖) is the main characteristic of Jelinek‘s stage: dedicated to the importance of Jelinek‘s its otherness. Such theatre offers multiple father in her works. Deceased in a mental voices that are like single ―pieces‖ of a hospital in the sixties and wrongly ne- total body. In this way the text appears as a glected by the critics for years, Calabrese ―speaking body,‖ laden with a performa- shows her father to have played a signifi- tive value, whose multifaceted places are cant role in Jelinek‘s late literary produc- simultaneously visual, acoustic and spatial. tion. The father figure symbolises the link Writing about ―Princesses! Chil- between Jelinek and her Hebraic roots, dren! A particular Representation of the and, particularly in her mature work, he Collective and Individual Imagination becomes a real subject, the voice of all the from the work Der Tod und das Mäd- victims of Jewish history. chen,” Neva Šlibar focuses on the mythi- Maria Fancelli‘s essay (―An Egyp- cized figure of the ―princess‖ consigned by tian Mummy in Elfriede Jelinek‘s Burg- the collective imagination to a dimension theater‖) analyses Jelinek‘s pièce Burg- of ―apparent death.‖ In Jelinek‘s plays theater written in the eighties, one of the women try to free themselves from such most significant examples of political thea- traditional stereotypes―derived from the tre after Brecht. Interrogating the responsi- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 57 male imagination―in order to be ―real‖ of rigid barriers that remains constructively women in the flesh. in the ―in-between,‖ in the tension created Rita Svandrlik‘s translation [into between the global and the private. Re- Italian] and interpretation of Jelinek‘s No- thinking the delicate dynamics between bel Prize speech ―Im Abseits,‖ defined as a ―house‖ (private) and ―outside world‖ ―poetical document,‖ end the volume with (global) in women‘s history, the authors a provocative suggestion, as it is only discover new approaches to reality, whose ―elsewhere,‖ in a different dimension, in strength lies precisely in individual wom- extreme isolation, that it remains possible en‘s capacity and desire to ―cross … the to write. The updated bibliography that border‖ (Uta Treder, Liana Borghi). Such mentions all Italian studies and articles on ―nomadic movement towards‖ always im- Jelinek‘s works enriches the book and plies a connection: the focus is not on the shows an increasing interest in the Aus- difference and distance but on the ―rela- trian writer on the Italian academic scene. tionship.‖ In this way ―global‖ and ―private‖ are no longer in conflict (house vs.

Women’s Discursive world) but become synonyms, two related terms, as their ―rapport is an analogic one, Geographies that is, a connection based on mutual affec-

Claudia Vitale tion‖ (Monica Farnetti). Analyzing works by famous wom- Review of Borghi, Liana and UtaTreder, en writers (Anna Maria Ortese, Hélène eds. Il globale e l‟intimo: luoghi del non Cixous, Dolores Prato, Sujata Bhatt, Eva ritorno. [The Global and the Private: Hoffman, Ingeborg Bachmann, Bettina Sites of No Return]. Perugia: Morlacchi, Brentano, Karoline von Günderrode, Emily 2007, pp. 193. ISBN 978-88-6074-139-4. Dickinson, Christa Wolf, Elfriede Jelinek) or in which women play important roles (―Alice in Wonderland,‖ the figure of Pe- nelope in Homer‘s Odyssey) the authors reflect on the two terms and find new, boundless paths. Women‘s ―sense of ad- venture‖ is ―different,‖ based on empathy and the desire to know the ―other,‖ ―the foreigner,‖ without which no self or identity is possible (Monica Farnetti). The relationship between ―in‖ and ―out‖ involves ideas of ―threshold‖ and ―passage‖ (Lucia- na Floris). Significantly the term ―threshold‖ calls to mind the German word ―Schwelle‖ which comes from ―Welle,‖ i.e. wave. As Virginia Woolf‘s Waves suggests, women‘s knowledge of the world is

like a flux, a stream which starts inside―in The third publication of the local the heart―and cre-atively breaks out into Florentine group ―Società Italiana delle the outside world. Memory and nostalgia Letterate‖ (Italian women writers society) are the main expressions of this mental and represents another innovative and provoca- emotional fluidity. Such a psychophysical tive way of rethinking women‘s reality and revolutionary attitude can be called an ―in- locations in our era. Paradoxically, such a stability principle‖ (Uta Treder), which ―no woman‘s land‖ must be seen not as a demonstrates women‘s capacity for never- neutral and negative space but, on the con- ending transformation (Maria Letizia trary, as an open and creative venue devoid Grossi) and which contrasts with the li- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 58 mited ideals of patriarchal society: Pink: Or How Things Haven’t straightforwardness and consistency. Yet Changed Much for Girls Such ―variability‖ reminds us of the so called ―Schwebe-Religion‖ [floating Claudia Vitale spirituality] of Bettina Brentano and Karo- line von Günderrode in the 18th century, as Lipperini, Loredana. Ancora dalla parte Uta Treder points out, and it relates not delle bambine. [More Kudos to Little only to Rosi Braidotti‘s Nomadic subjects: Girls]. Milano: Feltrinelli, 2007, pp. 285. embodiment and sexual difference in con- ISBN 978-8807-17139-0. temporary feminist theory, 1994, and Nowadays, what new models do we Adriana Cavarero‘s philosophy, In Spite of have for little girls? What do they want to Plato, 1995, but to women‘s fluid ways of become? Mothers? Dancers? Beauticians? transforming themselves in time and space Football players‘ wives? (Penelope) that reflect a ―new sense of The female heroes of their favorite self‖ as constructive, passionate, emotional comics want them to be nice; their favorite and vital, opposite to patriarchal domina- magazines offer romantic tests and make- tion by the two ideals of ―death‖ and ―ra- up application instructions. Their school- tional thought.‖ Indeed, such flexibility books still contain images of mothers and also supports the most recent neuro- housewives who care for children and hus- scientific discoveries that highlight affect bands. Advertisements represent them as and emotivity even in cognitive processes: young women cooks, and fashion shows no knowledge of the world is possible see them with miniskirts and tangas. Their without an authentic emotional involve- dolls are sex-bombs and mirror (or drive) ment. their own dreams: to become mothers, The ―emotional brain‖ of women dancers, beauticians, football players‘ transforms the world in different ways: the wives. This is the world of the last genera- verb ―to confine‖ means ―to be near to‖ tion of little girls. (Maria Luisa Wandruszka); ―to be in the In the seventies, Elena Gianini Be- world‖ means to ―experience creativity and lotti (who authored the preface to this change‖ (Rita Svandrlik): and ―to use the book) described the educational process to language‖ means ―finding new ways of which girls were subjected; it led to a con- expressing the self‖ (Brenda Porster). In a dition of inferiority that could be consi- word, it means ―passing‖ (Eleonora Chiti dered achieved even before schooling be- Lucchesi). gan. According to Loredana Lipperini, Stefania Zampiga‘s stunning per- things have not changed at all, even if they formance at the end of the book not only seem to be different: even if the pink enriches the volume but also gives it au- school smock has been shed, pink is the thentic significance: by following the color of Barbie‘s world and Barbie‘s ―sis- rhythm of her ―heart-body-sea‖ the author ters.‖ And although books, movies and recollects and revitalizes the past before cartoons propose more women characters returning to the womb and, passing the than in the past, they still saddle them with limits of her mother‘s death, experiences stereotypes such as witches and fairies. nostalgia, desolation and memory in her Loredana Lipperini‘s book focuses very flesh. on a crucial question: how is it possible

that those girls who wanted to become first ladies and presidents of the United States

have given birth to daughters whose main dream is to wiggle their hips half-naked close to a rapper?

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 59

Lipperini, a famous Italian journal- the author Arnau Gonzàlez i Vilalta‘s com- ist and writer, brilliantly analyses the prehensive introduction on women in Cata- meaning of those institutions which still lan nationalism during this period. play a significant role in women‘s appren- Catalanism emerged in the course of ticeship: family, school, media, books and the 19th century and encompassed a diverse cartoons. range of political, social and intellectual movements calling for affirmation of the personality of Catalonia as a nation and for recognition of its collective rights in terms of identity. It arose out of fierce political and linguistic repression suffered by Cata- lonia under the rule of successive Spanish governments since the 1714 defeat by the Bourbon monarchy. In the 1930's, Catalan- ism exhibited two currents, one on the left, basically grouped around Esquerra Repub- licana de Catalunya, and the other on the right, dominated by the Lliga Regionalista. The proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931 represented the beginning of gradual recovery of Catalan people's freedoms, an improvement that was cut short once more in 1939 with the Francoist victory in

the Civil War. Gonzàlez i Vilalta's work fills a gap Filling a Gap in Historical in studies of women's role within this Knowledge: Women in the movement. To the present, publications on Catalanist Movement this issue have been virtually non-existent, in contrast with the large number of studies Marina Massaguer largely dealing with Spain as a whole on the role of women in communist and anar- Review of Gonzàlez i Vilalta, Arnau. La chist parties and trade unions, in the Civil irrupció de la dona en el catalanisme War or under the Franco régime. The rea- (1931-1936). [The Irruption of Women son for this scarcity is probably that in Catalanism (1931-1936)]. Publicacions women did not play a major role in the de l'Abadia de Montserrat (Biblioteca Catalanist movement and, as an analysis of Serra d’Or). Barcelona: 2006, pp. 246. the texts in this collection reveals, they ISBN 84-8415-855-1. almost always responded to events as they La irrupció de la dona en el catalan- occurred. isme (1931-1936) collects articles that had The selection of documents―the appeared in sections of the press linked to primary source of information offered by the movement in defence of the Catalan this book―and their contextualisation by national community's political rights be- the author in his introductory study form a tween the proclamation of the Spanish Sec- whole which makes it possible for the ond Republic in 1931 and the outbreak of reader to draw―inductively―a series of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The com- conclusions about the topic at hand. mon thread linking these texts is debate on The first of these conclusions is that the role women played in Catalan politics what might be referred to as ―feminism‖ in and society in a period marked by social Catalonia throughout the 1930's had little and political progress and by the politicisa- to do with the feminism then reigning in tion of daily life. The text is prefaced by the rest of the Western world, in particular Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 60 in Great Britain: in many of the articles the politics until society, the whole country, all movement in favour of votes for women is aspects of life, had become completely associated with a form of agitation and a politicised. It was then that, so to speak, way of doing things deemed ridiculous, they jumped on the bandwagon of changes unnecessary and counter-productive. that were taking place. Shouldn‘t a distinctive discourse Once women could go to the urns, suited to the realities of Catalonia, i.e. a they became a political target, i.e. a poten- traditional Latin, Mediterranean society, tial source of votes. This was the moment arise instead? This feeling was present on they stopped being politically invisible. both left and right, though it was among One consequence was that women began the right that the Catalan word sufragisme to play an active role in political parties, provoked veritable terror, as may be seen slowly ceasing to be passive objects but in the texts from La Veu de Catalunya, the becoming civic subjects. In other words, mouthpiece of the Lliga Regionalista, and they not only received political proposals, other publications close to the Catholic but also generated discourse and shaped Church. The latter were scandalised by a opinion. way of doing things which clashed with It was in this context that the parties values that, in Catalonia in the 1930s, as- ―somewhat disconcerted by the new de- sociated femininity with discretion and velopment―began to organise themselves obedience. in order to attract women's votes, hastily The articles also reveal, however, deploying a discourse concerning women's that the problem was the non-existence of a social and political role. At first, both left distinct feminist alternative applicable to and right eyed the new constituency with the social and political context of Catalo- distrust, probably because they had no idea nia. Why did women lack an independent what might be about to happen as a result voice? The main reason was that policies of this change in the rules of the game. made by and for women had always followed in the wake of political events oc- curring on a general scale. That is, they were never generated or caused by women themselves (unlike in Anglo-Saxon countries), but were a consequence of overall changes in society and politics, such as the legislative advances that sprang from a desire to modernise Spain. A good example to illustrate this absence of a feminist discourse and movement in Republican Catalonia is the grant- ing, for the first time in Spanish history, of women's right to vote, thereby making suffrage genuinely universal. Suffrage was not a consequence of women's demands, however, but rather led to the timid emer- The difference between Esquerra gence of such demands. In other words, no Republicana, the main left-wing party, and women's movement had called for votes, the Lliga Regionalista, the main party on freedom and rights. Yet, on the basis of the right, lay in the way each went about this measure, women began to enter poli- adapting to the new situation. This is tics, as may be deduced from this collec- shown by texts from sections of the press tion. linked to one party or the other. Esquerra In this context, women did not par- Republicana had active women in its ranks ticipate actively in Catalan―or Spanish― Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 61

―with a major role within the party in highly uncomfortable position from an some cases―who wrote articles (many of ideological point of view. which are included in this collection), gave Apart from strictly political issues, talks throughout Catalonia and, in general, this book also offers the reader insight into generated a discourse. On the other hand, concepts of femininity and marriage which the Lliga Regionalista had no organised prevailed at the time, as well as into the female membership among its grassroots; roles of men and women in society and and it was party leader Francesc Cambó proposals for change which were begin- who persuaded Francesca Bonnemaison to ning to emerge. organise a women's movement within the Authors of texts included in Gon- party, made up largely of its male mem- zàlez i Vilalta's book were ignorant of the bers‘ wives, sisters and daughters. This future which awaited them, but modern- difference at the grassroots in the two main day readers are well aware of it: proposals parties can be discerned if one pays atten- for change were not to bear fruit because tion to the authorship of the texts in the of the outbreak of the Civil War, the tri- book. Nearly all those from La Humani- umph of the fascist armies, the fall of the tat―the mouthpiece of Esquerra Republi- Second Republic and the subsequent Fran- cana―are signed by women, while many coist dictatorship, marked by severe re- from La Veu de Catalunya―the mouth- pression in all areas of life. Of course, this piece of the Lliga Regionalista―are signed affected both the movement which had by men. arisen through women's participation in Nevertheless, these same texts indi- politics and the Catalanist movement, both cate that the problem, for the left in par- of whose demands were to be frozen for ticular, was not creating a discourse about four decades. This was, then, a double de- women, but applying it to Catalan realities: feat for Catalanist women, and even a tri- the left believed that women's suffrage ple defeat for those of them who were on would lead to a rise in votes and conse- the left. quently a victory for the right, due to the La irrupció de la dona en el cata- influence of the Church over women in a lanisme (1931-1936) is therefore an ac- society which was still strongly impreg- count of a period still marked by certain nated with a conservative Catholicism. social prejudices against the entry of wom- This created a major contradiction on the en into politics, by the strong influence of left: on the one hand, ideologically the fact conservative Catholicism in some sectors that women had no right to vote was a sign of society and by a distribution of roles of backwardness compared to other de- which limited women's independence in all mocracies; on the other, this same vote areas (in the family, the economy, at work, could mean their losing the government. in politics, etc.). At the same time, how- Female suffrage represented a clear social ever, there was a clear will to advance to- and political advance but, paradoxically, wards a situation in which equal rights for the right was more in favour of it because men and women would be guaranteed in of a general belief that it would favour order to ensure a society more fair and them. At the same time, some sectors on democratic overall. the left―women members included―saw it as more of a risk. It is extremely interesting to see, throughout the book, the contortions and circumlocutions in the writing by women from Esquerra Republicana―deeply democratic, socially aware women―to jus- tify their party's ambiguous stance, which must certainly have placed them in a Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 62

Women and the Culture of ture … with the earth. In this way, Peace considering the female body a con- tinuation of the earth, aggression Eva Virgili Recasens towards the enemy and conquest of their land are projected onto Magallón, Carmen. Mujeres en pie de women's bodies. The rape of paz. Pensamiento y practices. [Women on women on [either] side [is then] the Peace Path. Thought and Praxis]. justified [as a] right of domination Madrid: Siglo XXI, 2006, pp. 297. ISBN over one's own land. 84-323-1244-4. Only after the crimes committed in

An excellent book in peace studies the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda do we emerges from Spain, penned by Carmen find rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitu- Magallón, member of the magazine En pie tion, forced pregnancy or sterilisation and de paz editorial collective and currently other serious forms of sexual violence in- director of the Peace Research Seminar cluded in the definition of war crimes in Foundation (SIP) of Zaragoza as well as the Rome Statute (1998) of the Interna- vice-president of the Spanish Association tional Criminal Court. for Peace Research (AIPAZ). Women on The main aim of Women on the the Peace Path. Thought and Praxis pio- Peace Path is not, however, to discuss the neers new ground in this important field. violence inflicted on women, though this To achieve her narrative objectives, does not mean devaluing its effects and Magallón opens with the personal, drawing consequences, but rather to call for a spe- on experience of more than twenty years of cific role for them in building peace and to committed work for feminist and pacifist draw up a genealogy of their practices and causes, from the anti-nuclear movement of proposals. the 1980s to her on-going editorial com- The common ground that linked fe- mitment to publishing En pie de paz. She male nature with pacifist virtues was trod provides a genealogy of different women's upon by the first feminists; in 1914 the practices and proposals for building peace, International Woman Suffrage Alliance, in from the First World War to UN Security the name of twelve million women in 26 Council Resolution 1325; and attempts to countries, wrote a manifesto stating the influence debate about the female sex as a need to find channels of dialogue over the separate political player in favour of peace. conflict that was about to begin. While it is Despite various studies confirming true that the First World War divided the that the most prevalent violence suffered suffragette movement over the options of by women in war zones is rape,9 Enric war and peace, it is also true that in 1915, Tello reminds us that not without difficulty, the first Interna- Rape, like all abuses of power, is tional Women's Congress for Peace was born out of a power relationship held in The Hague, with the principal ob- that is socially legitimated ... jective of creating a strategy for peace. The Above and beyond formal laws second congress, held in Zurich once the governing equality... a dichotomous war had ended, witnessed proposal of the concept of the male and female Women's International League for Peace worlds, nature and culture takes and Freedom, aiming to unite the feminist root. Between these two poles, and pacifist movements. women continue to identify them- Feminist NGOs currently working selves [and be identified with] na- to build peace are spread all over the world. They can be divided into six groups according to their goals: 1) those that are 9 We must not forget that many women suffer this opposed to war and the military policies of violence in places where war is non-existent, in their everyday life. their governments, the international move- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 63 ment of Women in Black10 and the peace of Resolution 1325.18 Despite the impor- camp of Greenham Common11 (1981- tance of this resolution, as Sanam Ander- 2000); 2) those that intercede between op- lini states, not all women in power or in posing groups, to break down barriers be- decision-making positions are willing to tween divided communities through rela- defend the rights of women. tionships and research into points of contact, Bat Shalom12 and Hands Across the Divide;13 3) those that search for non- military solutions to structural conflicts such as the Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres in Colombia;14 4) women who fight against impunity in conflicts such as the Coordi- nadora Nacional de Viudas de Guatemala (CONAVIGUA),15 the committee of mothers of the disappeared in El Salvador (COMADRES) and the mothers and the grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Ar- gentina;16 5) groups that support women who live in situations of war or lack of freedom in other countries through the international sorority and 6) groups that lobby for the grassroots work done by women to play a part in decision making. In this way, the work of the NGO Working The activities of these women‘s Group on Women, Peace and Security17 groups in building peace are essential on together with the Division for the Ad- two levels: at the grassroots, which is nec- vancement of Women (DAW) and essary because the processes of peace in- UNIFEM, was vital for approval in 2000 volve the whole social group, and in the birth of alternative practices, such as those showing that even in war situations it is possible to think and act beyond national, 10 I found the references to the websites of some movements that the author has included in the text religious and state borders to promote a to be of great interest. Therefore, I will report here peace that, according to Carmen Magallón, the references cited in the book and some others must transcend the traditional concept of that I have found, to provide readers with quick peace understood as the absence of war. access to more complete knowledge of the move- Needed is the concept of positive peace.19 ment in question. Women in Black: http://wib.matriz.net/ The interpretative line followed by 11 Greenham Common: Magallón to build positive peace is rich. http://www.greenham.common.org.uk/ixbin/hixclie Peace-building work presupposes the nt.exe?a=file&p=greenham&f=greenham.htm 12 socio-historical deconstruction of the di- Bat Shalom: http://www.batshalom.org/ chotomy that linked the male gender with 13 Hands Across the Divide: http://www. handsacrossthedivide.org/ war and the female with peace via a faulty 14 Ruta Pacifica: http://www.rutapacifica.org.co/ 15 CONAVIGUA: http://members.tripod.com/CONAVIGUA/ 18 Resolution 1325 of the UN Security Council 16 Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo: urged the Secretary General and all of the Member http://www.abuelas.org.ar/. Madres de la Plaza de States to work towards greater inclusion of women Mayo: http://www.madres.org/ in the processes of building peace and in post- 17 Formed by the Women's International League for conflict reconstruction. Peace and Freedom, Amnesty International, the 19 Positive peace is defined as the absence of all Hague Appeal for Peace, International Alert, Inter- types of violence, direct, indirect, structural and national Peace Research Association and Women's cultural, as opposed to negative peace, the absence Commission For Refugee Women and Children. of armed conflicts. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 64 binding of romanticized maternal experi- seeing development based on traditionally ence to an erasure of the violence that female values such as acceptance of vul- women, too, have perpetrated throughout nerability and dependence. history. Building peace stands under the Nature has not made women more concept of imperfect peace, peace as a pacifist than men nor men more violent process and not as something static and than women. As Virginia Woolf notes in definite; it includes practices that emerge Three Guineas, the power of women for from the feminine and make it possible to peace is not based on motherhood, on their build peace through care and sustainability. nature, but on their historical exclusion Subversion of the hegemonic dis- from power and wealth; thus, preventing course, of the patriarchal practices of indi- war involves the dismantling of the patri- viduality and egotism, and promotion of archal sex-gender system. the primacy of care and sustainability that The defence of peace for Woolf is have traditionally been associated with therefore a free option for both men and women but are not exclusive to them ap- women and, while it is true that women are pear throughout Carmen Magallón's dis- not better or more pacifist than men, it is course as a ―revolutionary‖ path to follow equally true that they have played and con- in order to build peace. tinue to play a significant role in the cause of peace. Migration – Aliens Asleep? Building peace, Magallón argues, involves the practice of difference, through Ruth Klüger the creation of new methods and new words that are differentiated from hege- Trans. Tobe Levin monic patriarchal discourse. Review of Stefan, Verena. Fremdschläfer. There is, however, a caveat: the [Alien Sleeper]. Zürich: Ammann Ver- practices she proposes, of fundamental lag, www.ammann.ch, 2007, pp. 219. importance for building peace, stem from ISBN 978-3250601159. Review originally the feminine, from the female experience appeared in Die literarische Welt 06. of care and sustainability. October 2007. Sara Ruddick studied the potential of maternal thought in building a culture of Surely you remember what hap- peace. For this feminist, a mother ―is the pened when Verena Stefan‘s first book person (male or female) that takes respon- Häutungen [Shedding] appeared in 1975 in sibility for the life of children; he or she the cheeky new publishing house Verlag who provides care in infancy is a substan- Frauenoffensive. It quickly reached asto- tial part of their work and their life.‖ And nishing sales figures and became one of the the practice of dedicating time to care for foundational texts of the German women‘s life is intrinsically linked to the culture of movement. At that time, the author was peace. immediately classified as a ―radical femin- The practice of maternal thought is ist,‖ at least in those circles where such an thus intimately tied to mothering, which epithet is a sign of scorn or a mark of dan- arises from caring for children but, in rela- ger. And Wikipedia presents her as such tion to feminist movements for peace, ex- today. The moniker, however, betrays tends to political approaches that aim to something of a shrill marketing impulse, place human life at the center of culture like the cry of a fishwife, exactly the oppo- and of political decision-making. site of Stefan‘s style and mood, moving At the same time, the logic of the from the soft and dreamy through the sustainability of life, which unites human- sleep-walking to the sure-footed voice that ity with nature and is inseparable from the captures her readers. notion of equity, stands as a new way of Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 65

Hers is a style that deploys asto- feeds reflections on speaking a foreign nishment and curiosity, in fascination be- tongue: ―You have the feeling as though fore the cornucopia of sight and sound. I‘m you went shopping in the wrong store, as reminded of Stifter when reading about though you weren‘t really on the best of Stefan‘s travels and gardens, and I also terms with yourself, the shoe is too small, think of Gottfried Keller and his famous it‘s squeezing your toe, you didn‘t work poem about the ―golden excess in the the language right, it‘s not cut to size … world.‖ On your tongue, sentences are aliens, Stefan‘s text comprises snapshots strangers to the corners of your mouth.‖ and fragments of thought, sometimes play- We learn that after the war, bureaucrats ful, at others deadly serious. For despite considered the narrator‘s family foreign the label Roman on the cover, the book is because the mother, although born a Swiss not a novel; it lacks a comprehensive plot citizen, had married a German, thereby but instead is conceived as a kind of essay losing her citizenship. Illogically, only the carried along on the stream of authorial man‘s nationality counted to determine that impressions, punctuated by segments you of family members. An engineer whom might call prose-poems which, taken to- Switzerland could well have employed at gether, create a whole much larger than the the time, he entered the country illegally. sum of its parts. The voice says ―yes‖ to Although the canton‘s police and immigra- life and a humane vision that embraces tion authority could be buttered up, Verena animals, people, nature and civilization. Stefan, like her mother born in Switzer- land, experienced her childhood marked by the fact that she was officially considered foreign. As far as the neighbors were concerned, her father remained an ―alien,‖ an outsider who never really learned the Bern dialect even though he tried. ―As the locals would say, his language was in his mouth, not in his brain,‖ his daughter writes. Stefan‘s humanism also encompasses the animal world: housecats, wild cats, beavers, seals, and the ideal of a free- roaming wolf. In contrast, animal abuse is deplored, for instance the exhibition of Bern bears locked in a tower deprived of a view. On the one hand, her beloved Swit- zerland scintillates in Technicolor, though,

on the other, not all currents bathe in har- In the broadest sense, Fremd- mony and peace. schläfer [Alien Sleeper] deals with what is The most foreign element of all, foreign or familiar to us in our home or however, is illness, specifically cancer. adopted countries, what we see again with Following an idyllic swim in a mountain new eyes or pick up along the way. It di- lake, the narrator discovers a hardening in alogues and argues with two nations, the her breast. ―In a fraction of a second, your mother country and the lover‘s land. The lifetime is frozen in shock.‖ The clinical Swiss Verena Stefan has been living for details of medical examinations and subse- seven years in Montreal and sees herself as quent treatment are told in the same a kind of alien in the broadest sense. The rhythm as the rest, fluent and thoughtful narrator, who discovered Canada with its like descriptions of the landscape though friendly people and inhumane weather, the pretext has changed. Discovery of the lives in an English-French language mix. It tumor alters human relationships and leads Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 66 to a place ―in which even silence is still, an articulate reaction to it. Beginning in that silence that lets you lie back without 1995, she aimed to construct a canon words, stretch out and feel good.‖ During of urban high modernist and postmodernist chemo the author switches from direct ad- poetry based on 1980s publications whose dress in the second person (you) to the main protagonists were women. These impersonal ―one,‖ writing paradoxically: works would then encourage a new genera- ―One feels an urgent longing to pronounce tion of urban women poets. the pronoun ‗I‘.‖ The illness causes iden- Regarding methodology, the author tity loss. ―One‖ stinks, but it isn‘t one‘s combined gynocritical criteria, the domi- own odor. nant paradigm of feminist literary criticism Readers looking for the feminist in at that time in Serbia, with cultural ap- Alien Sleeper will find it mainly in the les- proaches developed by American language bian love story. Even today, when homo- poets in materialist readings. As a result, sexuality is far less stigmatized than twen- most chapters reveal an effort to place the ty years ago, the tranquil taken-for- work within a concrete political space that grantedness of a loving relationship be- highlights social context. Poets discussed tween two women is admirable. From Ve- include Radimla Lazic, Ljiljana Djurdjic, rena Stefan we can learn why feminism Judita Salgo, Ivana Milankova, Nina Ziv- embraces the humane or, conversely, why ancevic, Jelena Lengold, and the youngest true humanism enfolds feminism within it. generation born after 1974. The author has also included two texts that explicate her

critical method. Publications on Literature

Others’ Speech: Creative Female Characters of Antiquity

Essays Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić

Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić Review of Slapšak, Svetlana. Ženske ikone

Review of (essays by) Đjurić, Dubravke. antičkog sveta. [The Female Icons of An- Govor druge. [Speech of Others]. Beo- tiquity]. Beograd: edition XX vek, 2006. grad: Rad, 2006. ISBN 86-09-00933-5. ISBN 86-7562-047-0.

Following her successful book, The Female Icons of the XX Century, Svet- lana Slapšak published this collection of 70 short anthropological essays on female characters in the ancient world, The Fe- male Icons of Antiquity. Among the titles are ―How to become a mythical mortal woman,‖ ―Myths and the movies,‖ ―Tele- vision and myths,‖ ―A love activist: Aph- rodite,‖ ―Alkmena: a woman in politics,‖ ―Cassandra: the fate of a talented woman,‖ and ―Penelope.‖ For Svetlana Slapšak, reading out female from myths of Antiquity means reading Antiquity itself in a new way, revealing an unmistakeable relevance to present times in the deployment of particular If anti-modernism was dominant in myths. Starting points in this critical read- 1990s Serbian culture, Đjurić‘s essays are ing are the differences between various

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 67 versions, their discrepancies and/or am- The chapter ―Novel and Ro- bivalent conclusions. mance,‖ concerned with Marry Me, Brazil, Couples and The Witches of Eastwick, focuses on the combination of European and American novelistic traditions and the form known as ―romance.‖ ―The Scarlet Letter Trilogy,‖ A Month of Sundays, Roger's Version and S. are analyzed in the next chapter as specific readings of Hawthorne's romance. Theo- retical problems addressed include focali- sation, first-person narration, and the reli- able and unreliable narrator. In ―The Uses of Autobiography‖ devoted to the novels The Centaur, Of the Farm and In the Beauty of the Lilies, the narrative techniques in focus include shifts in perspective within the narration, usage Although the product of great eru- of mythical references and creation of bio- dition and lengthy research, the book is bibliography. written in an almost conversational narrative style, like telling and re-telling these stories once again. And as the author notes, the selected bibliography is based on the idea of favourite, not obligatory reading.

John Updike’s Novels

Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić.

Summary of Dojčinović-Nešić, Biljana. Kartograf modernog sveta: romani Džona Apdajka. [Modern World Cartographer: John Updike's Novels]. Beograd: Filološki fakultet, Beograd, 2007. ISBN 978-8686 419-20-0.

Modern World Cartographer: John The subsequent chapter on ―The Updike's Novels uses narrative strategies Rabbit Angstrom Show‖ concerns the cen- applied to a narrow range of topics to cata- tral cycle of Updike's writing, the novels logue Updike‘s work, which in turn re- Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich quires narratological and contextual analy- and Rabbit at Rest. Techniques analyzed sis. Among the analytical approaches, include the notion of realism in literature, feminist criticism and gendered readings the covert narrator, present tense narration take prime of place. and, especially, characterization and re- The five central chapters deal with search on characters within analyses of ―Novel and Romance,‖ ―The Scarlet Letter narrative strategies in general. Trilogy,‖ ―The Uses of Autobiography,‖ The final chapter, ―Meta-fiction and ―The Rabbit Angstrom Show‖ and ―Meta- Self-parody,‖ discusses The Memories of fiction and Self-Parody‖ discussing 19 the Ford Administration, The Coup and the Updike novels in all. Bech books from the standpoint of their

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 68 combining modern and postmodern tech- Deploying mainly contemporary niques. examples, this book throws light on the The conclusion reached is that John cultural and political roots of women‘s his- Updike has not been merely a witness of tory, illuminating stages in a chronicle of the modern world; he has also created a the feminine concerned with liberation and fictional map of that world, borrowing memory and then moving on to a more from his own experience and turning this complex and global history of gender. raw material into language that brings Along the way, the work brings up meth- pleasure and artistic joy to so many of us. odological landmarks and offers a critical reading of French historiography in order to lay the foundations of a disciplinary Practical Use memory, to contribute to diverse approaches and research trends and to elicit a CALL FOR REVIEWS: fruitful confrontation with non-French

In 2008, Feminist Europa. Review women historiographers. of Books will have a special feature on This is a new, substantially en- FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), in- larged edition of the 1998 original. It pro- cluding new books (not published in Eng- vides today‘s readers a panorama of one of lish) and books already reviewed over the the most exciting laboratories in the fields years so that all we have published on of history. FGM will appear in one place. Therefore, Françoise Thébaud is a professor of if you know about any book in your coun- contemporary history at the University of try on FGM, please either review it your- Avignon, France, co-director of the journal self or bring it to our attention. Clio, History, Women and Society, and Contact [email protected] Chair of Mnémosyne, the Association for Development of the History of Women and Gender. She directed Volume 5 (XXth Cen- Shortakes tury) of the series History of Women in the Western Hemisphere (Plon-Laterza, 1992; Compiled and translated by Biljana enlarged edition in paperback in 2002). Dojčinović-Nešić, Waltraud Dumont du She also co-directed Féminismes et identi- Voitel, Tobe Levin, Christiane Makward. tés nationales [Feminisms and National Thébaud, Françoise. Écrire l‟histoire des Identities] (Lyon, Center Jacques Cartier. femmes et du genre. [Writing the History 1998) and Le siècle des féminismes [A of Women and Gender]. Preface by Century of Feminisms] (Editions de Alain Corbin. Collection : Sociétés, es- l‘Atelier, 2004). paces, temps, 2007, pp. 313. ISBN 978-2- „Ecritures transculturelles“ – Franko- 84788-093-9. Trans. Christiane Makward phone Gegenwartsliteratur als Ort der Do women have a history? How Verhandlung geschlechtlicher und kul- can it be written? What is a history of gen- tureller Differenzen/ Différences der? What does it contribute? sexuelles et culturelles dans le roman Tidbits of a thesis in cultural his- contemporain de langue française. tory, bursts of ego, manifesto in defence [„Transcultural Writing‖: Contempo- and illustration of a research field, Writing rary Francophone Literature Negotiat- the History of Women and Gender is pri- ing Gender and Cultural Difference]. marily the story of an intellectual adven- Tübingen: Narr Verlag, Reihe: Cahiers ture that has absorbed a growing number of lendemains, 2007. Trans. Tobe Levin female and male historians in France and elsewhere for the past three decades. ―Écritures transculturelles‖ was generated by the section on „Gender and

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 69 cultural difference in the contemporary Diversity and breadth of difference French-language novel,‖ whose workshop emerge from contestatory novels published took place during the Fifth Congress of the in the aftermath of French colonization on (German) French Studies Association 25- the one hand and significant migration and 29 September 2006, headed by Prof. Dr. exilic movements of the last fifty years on Gisela Febel, Karen Struve, M.A. and Dr. the other that have insinuated themselves Natascha Beckmann. Principal themes in significant numbers onto the French were worked out in cooperation with the market and have therefore exercised consi- Center d‟Etudes des différences sexuelles derable influence on it. All chapters ex- et culturelles at the University of Paris amine the cultural context of the writing VIII. from acts of violence to erotic events, and Contributors ask how cultural dif- this multiplicity offers rich possibilities for ference and gender interact, mutually in- research. At the same time, the number of fluence each other, can be studied and ex- women writing and publishing in France pressed. In recent years a great deal of ink who also include the theme of gender has has flowed over gender and its construc- exploded exponentially. In unique ways, tion, social aspects of sexual difference and these authors apply their own conscious- their incarnation in aesthetic and cultural ness and gender positioning to the global representations. Chapters reflect on ques- thematic of cultural difference, questioning tions of hybridization, creolization, and traditional roles. These tendencies produce other inter- and trans-cultural matters, a complex picture of cultural dynamics and ranging from post-colonial studies and contacts, a swirl of cross-currents that con- Anglo-American theory to cultural contact temporary literature represents, takes up, including aesthetic and political writing by and works out. francophone authors showcasing such con- The contemporary novel in France cepts as négritude, créolité or the articula- and the francophone world is largely influ- tion of difference in the Magreb or West enced by these tendencies and questions, African literature. These two aspects are with a multiplicity of crossings between considered together in terms of their spe- cultural and gender difference to exhibit. cific influence derived from interaction of The analysis of these interwoven strands of cultural and gender difference. How does culture and gender is a long overdue con- the one change the other? How is each tribution to francophone literary studies. amplified? Confirmed? Undermined? In other words, it is a question of „crossing Fries, Jana Ester, Ulrike Rambuscheck sexual and cultural differences,‖ resulting & Gisela Schulte-Dornberg, eds. Science in more complex trans-cultural descrip- or fiction? Geschlechterrollen in archäo- tions of life as experienced by concrete logischen Lebensbildern. [Science or Fic- individuals. Chapters focus on issues of tion? Gender Roles in Archeological patchwork or multiple identities, hybridity, Biographies]. Münster: Waxmann Ver- and deconstruction of gender identities. lag, 2006, pp. 240, ISBN 978-3-830917- Flowing from two lines of theory 496. Trans. Tobe Levin are three major axes bound together as Science or fiction? Gender Roles in Doing Culture/Gender: 1. In what sense Archaeological Biographies represents the are gender differences cultural? 2. To what proceedings of the second meeting of the extent are cultural differences „en- ―working group on gender studies‖ at the gendered―? 3. Does a literary and visual 5th German conference of archaeologists in aesthetics of difference in novels and film Frankfurt/Oder in 2005, plus two addi- exist? How can we identify characteristics tional papers. of a trans-cultural manner of writing, „écri- Since archaeologists have only rare tures transculturelles,‖ in the contemporary leftovers of prehistoric lives to work with, French novel? Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 70 their biographical sketches of prehistoric This collection of essays on Anglo- human beings always require supplementa- American literature has been influenced by tion and speculation. Interpretation is nec- various kinds of feminist theory. An intro- essarily subjective and relates more or less duction and two chapters in the segment to (sub)conscious perceptions of life in entitled Cities present the themes of writ- prehistory; this projection, in turn, leaves ing, bodies and the urban environment in its imprint on the scientific picture, a dis- Henry James' novels The Portrait of a tortion that academics themselves rarely Lady, The Ambassadors and The Wings of perceive. Even in the 21st century, concep- the Dove. The second segment, Rooms, tions of gender role models, in particular, deals with V. Woolf and Michael Cun- are in complicity with those of the 19th nigham's novels and the movies based on century middle class as it appears in schol- them as well as with Charlotte Perkins arly publications as well as in text-books Gilman's story ―The Yellow Wallpaper.‖ and in other mass media. The third segment, Portraits, includes an essay on Margaret Atwood and John Up- dike‘s novels as well as Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

Gordić-Petković, Vladislava. Virtuelna književnost II: književnost, tehnologija, ideologija. [Virtual Literature II: Litera- ture, Technology, Ideology]. Zrenjanin: Gradska narodna biblioteka Zrenjanin, 2007. ISBN 978-86-7284-095-7

The 79 micro-essays collected here were first published in a weekly column in the Serbian daily Danas. Representing a hybrid approach to literary, social and cul-

This edited volume by Fries and tural topics, they offer witty prose on seri- colleagues combines―by means of pic- ous themes. The author Vladislava Gordić- tures and text—scientific literature with Petković is professor of English and Amer- biographical sketches, as prepared by the ican Literature at the Universities of Novi Neanderthal Museum for a broad public Sad and Belgrade, and also teaches at the and for inclusion in curricula, historical Belgrade Women's Studies Center. Her film and cinema. An introductory contribu- extensive readings in literature, history and tion asks how the concept of gender has feminist theory are here combined with changed within western/ occidental phi- „topics of the week‖ to create new and losophy in the course of the centuries. The sometimes startling topoi ranging from biographical narratives replicate scenes Proust to Madonna. Of the many attractive from daily life beginning with the Paleo- titles, we will cite ―Models and Idols: Zen lithic era and moving on to Roman times. Proustism?‖, ―Archipelag Absourdistan‖; With the ―biographical sketch of a female ―History of Histerya‖; ―Madonna Trou- archaeologist‖ the chronology ends in the ble‖; ―The Animal Measure of Humanity‖; 20th century. ―Generation Google.‖ Interested? The author's strategy is either to Stojanović-Pantoviç, Bojana, ed. Gradovi, take up some ―hot‖ topic or highlight one sobe, portreti: ogledi. [Cities, Rooms, herself, examine it in both local and global Portraits: Essays by Biljana Dojčinović- contexts and then point to some of its Nešić]. Beograd, Serbia: KD ―Sveti Sava,‖ other, less expected, traits. Her text on 2006. ISBN 86-86143-41-5. Madonna, for instance, by locating the

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 71 singer in the context of cultural and media авторки. [Voices. New Humanistics studies, points to the ambiguity she pre- from Balkan Authors]. SONM publish- sents for any kind of serious ―reading‖ of ers, Sophia, 2007. ISBN 978-954-8478- her work, including analyses by feminists 89-2 on fluid identity, parody and pastiche, techniques that Madonna deploys. Without This collection of essays from Bul- producing a footnoted academic text, garia, Macedonia and Serbia represents Gordić-Petković sums up feminist readings feminist thought in this part of Europe. The of Madonna in quite a relaxing way. editors, who provided introductory texts If genres really have ―memory ca- for their countries, laying out general pacity,‖ then, along with the books by trends in the development of feminist the- Svetlana Slapšak and Vladislava Gordić- ory, also feature among the authors in na- Petković, these mini-essays in Serbian cul- tional segments. ture should certainly be called a ―woman's Writers include, from Bulgaria: genre.‖ Nadežda Radulova, Nadežda Aleksadrova, Natalija Afejna, Ralica Muharska; from Gordić-Petković,Vladislava. Na ženskom Macedonia: Katica Kulavkova, Rajna kontinentu. [On the Female Continent]. Koshka, Slavica Srbinovska, Katerina Novi Sad: DOO Dnevnik — Novine i Kolozova and Jasna Koteska; and from časopisi, 2007. ISBN 978-86-84097-88-2. Serbia: Zorica Ivanović, Dragana Popović, Svetlana Slapšak, Jasmina Lukić and On the Female Continent collects Dubravka Đurić. Topics range from the essays on women's writing and writing history of literature, body theory, Bible and about women. female ethics all the way to women and The 28 essays, divided into three science. segments―Female Net, Shakespearience, Ideology and Identity―,have been previ- Note of the editors: ously published in conference proceedings, A Museum for Women of the Balkans collections and journals. However, gath- was founded in Sofia/Bulgaria, Boulevard ered in a single volume, they reveal exten- ―Janko Sakasov‖, 19. sive feminist readings of the literature and E-mail: [email protected]. culture itself. A professor teaching a course ופמיניזם נשים - אישה לחשוב .on Shakespeare, Gordić-Petković finds Shadmi, Erella :Thinking Women] .שדמי בחברהגבריתאראלה new angles on this topic―comparing the ―cases‖ of Hamlet and Wuthering Heights, Women and Feminism in Masculine and for instance, or finding Shakespearian he- Racist Israeli Society]. Tzivonim Publi- roes and motives in contemporary Serbian cations, 2007. drama. This book, the first of its kind in The first and third parts of the book Israel, examines from a radical feminist feature essays which form an alternative, perspective integrating personal experi- other, history of Serbian literature. One on ence, theory and politics, Israeli society, Serbian women's prose in the 1990s pre- the feminist movement and the position of sents the first attempt to systemize this women in Israel. The study grew out of the production. Some chapters compare Ser- author's personal involvement in feminist bian and foreign production by women activism and gender research and includes writers while others elucidate female char- an introduction on radical feminist theory acters in Serbian male literary works. and politics―a theoretical and political

Milena Kirova (Bulgaria) and Maja position never thoroughly elaborated be- Bojadžijevska (Makedonija) and Biljana fore in Israel. Each chapter critically ana- Dojčinović-Nešić (Serbia), eds. Гласове, lyzes one aspect of the topic (e.g., male Нова хуманитаристика от балкански violence, teachers as women, police and Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 72 trafficking in women, lesbians, pornogra- Frumuşani & R. Surugiu. Femei, cu- phy and lesbianism, women's studies, vinte şi imagini. Perspective feministe. Women in Black, the feminist movement). [Women, Words and Images. Gen- All together they show the way Israeli so- der Perspectives]. Iaşi: Polirom, 2002. ciety is gendered and racialized. Brackert, Gisela. „Gott ist eine Frau und Thinking Women argues that the sie wird älter“ 88 Zusprüche. [God is Second Zionist Revolution (incorporating a Woman Growing Older. 88 Ap- the revival of Ashkenazi racism, the power praisals]. Königstein im Taunus: Ul- of capital owners and male sexism) has rike Helmer Verlag, 2007, pp. 200. developed in the last decade. From a per- ISBN 978-3-89741-233-0. sonal and experiential standpoint, the au- Brekus, Catherine A., ed. The Religious thor honestly discusses her Jewish and History of American Women. Re- Ashkenazi identity and her view of men in imagining the Past. Chapel Hill, NC: patriarchy. The book pays tribute to The University of North Carolina women's resistance and analyzes achieve- Press, 2007, pp. 320. ments as well as failures. It concludes with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). an attempt to illustrate new directions for Sex ID Internet Survey. Archives of Israeli feminism as a critique of society, Sexual Behaviour. Vol. 36, No. 2, politics and culture in the contemporary 2007. state. Bührmann, Andrea D., Angelika Diezinger & Sigrid Metz-Göckel, eds. Arbeit –

Books received Sozialisation – Sexualität. Zentrale Felder der Frauen- und Geschlechter- Aulenbacher, Brigitte, Maria Funder, Hei- forschung. [Work―Socialization― ke Jacobsen & Susanne Völker, eds. Sexuality. The Heart of Women’s Arbeit und Geschlecht im Umbruch and Gender Studies]. Wiesbaden: VS der modernen Gesellschaft. For- Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007, schung und Dialog. [Work and Gen- pp. 364, ISBN 978-3-531-4554-9. der in early Modernity. Research Bulai, Ana with Irina Stanciugelu. Gen şi and Dialogue]. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag reprezentare socială. [Gender and So- für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007, pp. cial Representation]. Bucureşti: Politea, 306. ISBN 978-3-531-15 139-7. SNSPA, 2004. Ali, Ayaan Hirsi. Mein Leben, meine Buschhoff, A & W. Herzogenrath, eds. Freiheit. [My Life, My Liberty]. Paula Modersohn-Becker und die München: Piper Verlag, 2007. Kunst in Paris um 1900. [Paula Mo- Baiasu, Sorin. Egalitate şi diferenţă: două dersohn-Becker and Art in Paris versiuni ale dilemei şi libertatea de a o around 1900]. München: Hirmer Ver- rezolva. [Equality and Difference: lag, 2007, pp. 360. Two Versions of a Dilemma and the Cavalli, Patricia. Mes poemes ne change- Liberty to Change It]. In: Toderean, ront pas le monde. Préface de Giorgio Olivia, ed. Itinerarii contestatare. Agamben. [My Poems Will Not Studii de teorie politică feministă. [In: Change the World. Foreword by Disputable Itineraries. Studies of Gen- Giorgio Agamben]. Paris: des femmes. der Politics Theory]. Bucureşti: Politea, Antoinette Fouque, 2007. ISBN 978-2- SNPSA, 2003. 7210-0554-0. Bennett, Judith M. History Matters. Patri- Clark, Emily. Masterless Mistresses. The archy and the Challenge of Feminism. New Orleans Ursulines and the De- Manchester: Manchester University velopment of a New World Society, Press, 2007, pp. 214, ISBN 978-07-190 1727-834. Chapel Hill, NC: The Uni- -75650. versity of North Carolina Press, 2007. Bradeanu, A. with O. Dragomir, D. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 73

Claudot-Hawad, Hélène. Tuareg. Porträt Cristina, ed. Femeile ǐn România eines Wüstenvolks. [The Tuareg. Por- comunistă. [In: Women in Communist tray of a Desert People]. Bad Honnef: România]. Bucureşti: Politea, SNSPA, Horlemann Verlag, 2007. ISBN 3- 2003. 89502-238-1. Greer, Germaine. Shakespeare‟s Wife. Die Grünen Linz, eds. Frauen Macht Zu- London: Bloomsbury, 2007. kunft. [Women Power Future]. Reihe Hark, Sabine, ed. Dis/Kontinuitäten: Fe- Dokumentation Band 33. Wien: Milena ministische Theorie. Verlag, 2007, pp. 327, ISBN 978-3- [Dis/Continuities: Feminist Theory]. 85286-149-4. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Wissen- Drouet, Juliette. Souvenirs 1843 – 1854. schaften, 3. Auflage, 2007, pp. 322, [Memories 1843―1854]. Édition étab- ISBN 978-3-531-15217-2. lie par Gérard Pouchaine. Edited by Heidenreich, Elke. Mascha Kaléko. Lie- Gérard Pouchaine. Paris: des femmes. besgedichte. Eine Auswahl. [Mascha Antoinette Fouque, 2006. ISBN 978-2- Kaléko. Love Poems. A Selection]. 7210-0546-5. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 2007. Fouque, Antoinette. Il y a DEUX Sexes. Herzogenrath, W. ed. Paula Modersohn- Essais de Féminologie. [There Are Becker heute. [Paula Modersohn- TWO Sexes. Essays in Feminology]. Becker Today]. München: Hirmer Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2004. 2nd Verlag, 2007. edition. Hellmich, Elisabeth. Forever young? Die Fouque, Antoinette. Gravidanza. Fémi- Unsichtbarkeit alter Frauen in der nologie II. Préface de Alain Touraine. Gegenwartsgesellschaft. [Forever [Gravidanza. Feminology II. Fore- young? The Invisibility of Older word by Alain Touraine]. Paris: Des Women in Present Day Society]. femmes-Antoinette Fouque, 2007. Wien: Milena Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978- ISBN 978-2-7210-0565-6. 3-85286-152-4. Gause, Detlev, ed. JungenLeben – Traum Hiddleston, Jane. Assia Djebar. Out of und Trauma des Mannwerdens. Algeria. Liverpool: Liverpool Univer- [Boys’ Lives―Dream and Trauma of sity Press, 2007. Distributed by www. Becoming a Man]. Schenefeld: EB press.uchicago.edu. Verlag für Wissenschaft und Praxis, Hitchcoot, Nicki. Calixthe Beyala. Per- 2007, pp. 238, ISBN 978-3-936912-06- formances of Migration. Liverpool: 7. Liverpool University Press, 2007. Dist- Gentsch, Günter. Roulette des Lebens. Die ributed by www.press.uchicago.edu. ungewöhnlichen Wege der Lady Mary Holtz-Bacha, Christina & Nina König- Montagu. [Roulette of Life. The Un- Reiling, eds. Warum nicht gleich? Wie usual Ways of Lady Mary Montagu]. die Medien mit Frauen in der Politik Königstein im Taunus: Ulrike Helmer umgehen. [Why Not Now? How Me- Verlag, 2007, pp. 370. ISBN 978-3- dia Treats Women in Politics]. Wies- 89741-238-5. baden: VS Verlag für Wissenschaften, Gerhard, Ute & Ulla Wischermann, eds. 2007, pp. 218, ISBN 978-3-53115- Klassikerinnen feministischer Theo- 3575. rie. [Standard Authors of Feminist Horváth, Andrea. „Wir sind anders“. Gen- Theory]. Königstein im Taunus: Ulrike der und Ethnizität in Barbara Frisch- Helmer Verlag, 2007, pp. 340. ISBN muths Romanen. [„We Are Different. 978-3-89741-242-2. Gender and Ethnicity in Barbara Gheonea, Elena with Valentin Gheonea. Frischmuth’s Novels]. Würzburg: Kö- Femeile în propaganda regimului nigshausen & Neumann Verlag, 2007, communist. [Women in Communist pp. 160, ISBN 978-3-8260-3632-3. Regime Propaganda]. In: Olteanu, Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 74

Inhetween, Heide & Mathilde Schmitt, eds. Lichte, Marijke. Deutschlands tote Kinder. Frauen und Hortikultur. [Women Kindstötung als Folge von Gewalt- and Horticulture]. Rurale Geschlech- handlung, sexuellem Missbrauch und terforschung. Münster: LIT Verlag, Verwahrlosung. Eine historisch-sozio- 2007. logische Untersuchung zum Thema Jabour, Anya. Scarlett‟s Sisters. Young Infantizid. [Germany’s Dead Child- Women in the Old South. Chapel Hill, ren. Child Murder as a Consequence NC: The University of North Carolina of Violence, Sexual Abuse and Ne- Press, 2007, 3084. glect. A Historical-sociological Anal- Jung, Tina. Geschlechterdemokratie als ysis of Infanticide]. Oldenburg: „rhetorische Modernisierung“? Eine Schardt Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-89 feministische ReVision. [Gender De- 84 -315-2. mocracy as „Rhetorical Renova- Leirós Bescansa, Carme. Gender- und tion‖? A Feminist Re-Vision]. Frei- Machttransgression im Romanwerk burg: Fördergemeinschaft wissen- Irmgard Keuns. Eine Untersuchung schaftlicher Publikationen von Frauen aus der Perspektive der Gender Stu- e.V., www.fwpf.de, 2007, pp. 148, dies. [Gender and Power Trans- ISBN 978-3-939348-10-8. gression in the Novels of Irmgard Kreienkamp, Eva. Gender Marketing. Keuns. A Study from the Point of Konsumverhalten von Mann und View of Gender Studies]. Mannhei- Frau. [Gender Marketing. Consumer mer Studien zur Literatur- und Kultur- Behaviour of Men and Women]. wissenschaft, Band 42, Mannheim: München: Redline GmbH., 2007, ISBN Röhrig Universitätsverlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-03108-2. 978-3-86110-424-7. Köster, Magdalena & Susanne Härtel, eds. Luz, Claudia. „Die Hälfte der Familie für „Sei mutig und hab Spaß dabei“. Acht die Männer, die Hälfte der Berufswelt Künstlerinnen und ihre Lebensge- für die Frauen!“ [―Half of the Family schichte. [„Be Brave and Have Fun.“ for Men, Half of the Professions for Life Stories of Eight Female Artists]. Women‖]. Mannheim: Kunstanstifter Weinheim: Beltz & Gelberg Verlag, Verlag, 2007, pp. 202, ISBN 978-3- 2007, pp. 300, ISBN 3-407-80957-3. 9811465-0-9. Köster, Magdalena. „Brilliante Bilanzen“. Mae, Michiko & Britta Saal. Trans- Fünf Unternehmerinnen und ihre Le- kulturelle Genderforschung. Ein Stu- bensgeschichte. [„Brilliant Financial dienbuch zum Verhältnis von Kultur Statements.‖ Five Female Entre- und Geschlecht. [Trans-cultural preneurs and Their Life Stories]. Gender-Research. A Textbook]. Weinheim: Beltz & Gelberg Verlag, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwis- 2007, pp. 300, ISBN 3-407-80957-3. senschaften, 2007, pp. 340, ISBN 978- Kolářová, Kateřina & Věra Sokolová, eds. 3-531-15168-7. Gender and Generation. Interdiscipli- Maltry, Karola, Barbara Holland-Cunz, nary Perspectives & Intersections. Nina Köllhofer, Rolf Löchel & Susan- Praque: Litteraria Pragensia, 2007, pp. ne Maurer, eds. Genderzukunft. Zur 214, ISBN 978-80-7308-184-3. Transformation feministischer Vi- Krauß, Florian. Männerbilder im Bolly- sionen in der Science-Fiction. [The wood-Film. Konstruktionen von Männ- Future of Gender. The Transforma- lichkeit im Hindi-Kino. [Sketches of tion of Feminist Visions in Science Men in Bollywood Films. Construc- and Fiction]. Königstein im Taunus: tions of Maleness in Hindi Cinema]. Ulrike Helmer Verlag, 2007, pp. 200. Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Ber- ISBN 978-3-89741-234-7. lin (wvb), ISBN 978-3-86573-303-0.

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Maxwell, Jane, Julia Watts Belser & Dar- Röhrig, Anna E. „Klug, schön, gefähr- lena David, eds. A Health Handbook lich“. Die hundert berühmtesten for Women with Disabilities. Berkeley: Frauen der Weltgeschichte. [„Intelli- Hesperian, 2007, pp. 416, ISBN 978-0- gent, Beautiful, and Dangerous.‖ The 942364-50-7. Hundred Most Famous Women in Mischowski, Gabriela. „Damit es die Welt World History]. München: C.H. Beck erfährt.“ Sexualisierte Gewalt im Verlag, 2007. Krieg vor Gericht. [„Let the World Rosenberg, Lea. Martha Nussbaums poli- Know.― Sexualized Violence in War- tische Philosophie. Eine Einführung. time on Trial]. Bundesministerium für [The Political Philosophy of Martha Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend, Nussbaum. An Introduction]. Wies- eds. In cooperation with medica baden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissen- mondiale e. V. Bonn, 2007. www. schaften, Politik und Geschlecht, Band bmfsfj.de. www.medicamondiale.org. 17, 2007, pp.150, ISBN 987-3- 531- Monteil, Claudine. Die Schwestern Hélène 14666-9. und Simone de Beauvoir. [The Sisters Rosenkranz, Jutta. Mascha Kaléko 1907 – Hélène and Simone de Beauvoir]. 1975. [Mascha Kaléko. 1907 – 1975]. München: Nymphenburger in der F. A. Frankfurt am Main: dtv Verlag, 2007. Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung, 2007. Schipper, Mineke. „Heirate nie eine Frau Nicolaescu, Valentin Quintus with Radu mit großen Füßen“ Frauen in Sprich- Pirca. Femeia în gândirea naţionalistă wörtern – eine Kulturgeschichte. românească: patriarhatul indiferenţei. [„Never Marry a Woman with Big [Woman in Romanian Nationalist Feet.‖ Women in Proverbs―a Cul- Thought: Patriarchate of Indiffer- tural History]. Eichborn Verlag, ET, ence]. In: Bucur, Maria and Mihaela 2007. Miroiu, eds. Patriarhat şi emancipare Southern, Antje. Himmlische Frauen. în istoria gândirii politice româneşti. [Heavenly Women]. München: Elisa- [In: Patriarchate and Emancipation in beth Sandmann Verlag, 2007. the History of Romanian Political Stein, Maike. Autorinnenvereinigung e. V., Thought]. Iaşi: Polirom, 2002. eds. Dünn ist die Decke der Zivilisati- Opfermann, Susanne, ed. Unrechtserfah- on. Begegnungen zwischen Schrift- rungen. Geschlechtergerechtigkeit in stellerinnen. [Thin Is the Ceiling of Gesellschaft, Recht und Literatur. Civilization. Female Authors Meet]. [Experiences of Injustice. Gender Königstein im Taunus: Ulrike Helmer Justice in Society, Law and Litera- Verlag, 2007, pp. 230. ISBN 978-3- ture.]. Königstein im Taunus: Ulrike 89741-244-6. Helmer Verlag, 2007, pp. 180. ISBN Taherifard, Maryam. Sittlichkeit und 978-3-89741-226-2. Sinnlichkeit. Weibliche Sexualität im Pobitzer, Miriam. De bello phallico. Eine Iran. [Morality and Voluptuousness. Urgeschichte weiblicher Lust. [De Female Sexuality in Iran]. Königstein bello phallico. A Pre-History of Fe- im Taunus: Ulrike Helmer Verlag, male Desire]. Bozen: Edition Raetia, 2007, pp. 380. ISBN 978-389741245 3. 2006, ISBN 978-88-2504-259-2. Vogel, Ulrike. Meilensteine der Frauen- Rohr, Elisabeth, Ulrike Wagner-Rau & und Geschlechterforschung. [Mile- Mechthild M. Jansen, eds. Die halbier- stones in Women’s and Gender Re- te Emanzipation? Fundamentalismus search]. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für So- und Geschlecht. [Emancipation by zialwissenschaften, 2007, pp. 226, half? Fundamentalism and Gender]. ISBN 978-3-531-15204-2. Königstein im Taunus: Ulrike Helmer Verlag, 2007, pp. 210. ISBN 978-3- 89741-235-4. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 76

Wallhad, Celia. A.S. Byatt: Essays on the C‟était à Tigony is Dr. Adeaga‘s. Theoreti- Short Fiction. Bern: Peter Lang Ver- cal work includes ―The Problems of Trans- lag, 2007, pp. 234. ISBN 978-3-03911- lating Two African Novels into German‖ 158-9/US-ISBN 978-8204-8385-6pb. as well as ―Intercultural Translation or Women‘s Learning Partnership (WLP) in Dualité, the Afro-French Example.‖ She is cooperation with WLP partner in Mo- a member of the African Literature Asso- rocco l‘Association Démocratique des ciation, African Studies Association Femmes du Maroc: Leading to (ASA), Modern Language Association Choices: A Multimedia Curriculum (MLA), and the European Association for for Leadership Learning. French edi- Commonwealth Literature and Language tion available. Studies (EACLALS). Founding Secretary Zorn, Isabel, Susanne Maass, Els Rommes, of the Translation Caucus of the African Carola Schirmer & Heidi Schelhowe, Literature Association (TRACALA), she eds. Gender Designs IT. Construction currently serves on the International board and Deconstruction of Information of the Acta Scientiarum at the State Uni- Society Technology. Vol. 13. Wies- versity of Maringá, Brazil. Engaged in baden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissen- humanitarian work for over 15 years, she is schaft, 2007, pp. 195, ISBN 978-3-531- a member of the European Academy in 14818-2. Bonn (part of the Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation, For further new German and other Berlin) which takes her around Germany to European publications please go to: address African development issues. The www.stiftung-frauenforschung.de. African Concern Organisation (an NGO) in

For publications in French go to: Paris, France, also benefits from her par- www.desfemmes.fr. ticipation. Feminist Europa. Review of Books is happy to welcome Dr. Tomi Adeaga to our Associate Editor’s board. Contributors’ and Translators’ Bios [email protected]

A Nigerian who has lived and studied in Birgit Blaettel-Mink, Prof. Dr. teaches in Germany since 1992, Dr. Tomi Adeaga the department of sociology, University of received her doctorate degree in 2004. Her Frankfurt, Germany. She specializes in in- BA (Combined Honours) in French/ Ger- novation as a social process; gender and man was awarded by the Obafemi work, education, and technology, as well Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. An as sociology as a profession. Her current expert in translation studies and African focus includes a project on gender in the Diasporic studies in Europe as well as the biological sciences. An external consultant theme of African Presence in Europe, with MBU, UBA, INTAS and the Swiss Tomi Adeaga is also a poet, writer and National Fund (SNF), she is currently a literary critic who speaks and performs in visiting professor at the Academy of Ad- Africa, Europe and the USA. Her work- ministration in Baden-Wuerttemberg. book, Translating and Publishing African [email protected] Language(s) and Literature(s): Examples from Nigeria, Ghana and Germany (2006) Dr. Jeanette Clausen is Professor of is used in universities and translation insti- German and Chair of International and tutes. She has also published a short story, Second Language Studies at the University ―Marriage and Other Impediments‖ as well of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA. She is as poems including ―Neger 3km‖ address- interested in feminist approaches to lan- ing the complexities of Europe-African guage and literature, the Scholarship of dialogue. The English translation of Beni- Teaching and Learning, and higher educa- noise Olympe Bhêly Quenum‘s novel, tion administration—or, as one cliché aptly

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 77 describes it, the science of herding cats. low in the Department of Applied Social Sci- [email protected] ences. An academic for over 12 years in Liter- ary Studies, Translation Studies and Social Biljana Dojčinović-Nešić, Ph.D. co-founded and Evaluation Research, she holds a BA the Women's Studies Center in Belgrade, Ser- honors degree in Modern Languages and Eco- bia. She has also been a Center co-coordinator nomics from Leicester University, an MA in and has lectured in literature and feminist Women‘s Studies in Education from the Uni- criticism. In 2002 she became editor-in-chief versity of London and a Ph.D. in Translation of Genero, A Journal in Feminist Theory. Studies from Middlesex University. Her inter- Her MA thesis, published as a book Gynocri- disciplinary approach also encompasses hu- ticism: Gender and Women‟s Writing in 1993, man rights, gender/ feminist and equality re- was a pioneering work, introducing gender search and postcolonial studies in the humani- categories to literary studies in Serbia. She ties, social sciences and arts. Her publications has been teaching literary theory in the include Global Feminist Politics, identities in Philological Faculty of Belgrade University a changing world (2000) co-edited with Suki since 2003. [email protected] Ali and Kelly Coates, and an essay on transla-

Waltraud Dumont du Voitel, Dr. phil. stud- tion and race in Athanor 2007. A pioneering ied anthropology, sociology and history of distinguished translator and translation South Asia in Heidelberg, Germany. She has scholar, Wangui wa Goro is the first in a new been engaged in human rights for women and generation to work in literary translation in her has researched gender issues in agricultural mother tongue Gikuyu as well as in French, environments in Europe, specifically Ger- Italian and Swahili and has translated Vero- many (rural midwives) and West Africa. One nique Tadjo (A Vol d‟oiseau), Ngugi wa of her major publications is Macht und Ent- Thiong‘o (Matigari) and Fatou Keita (Re- machtung der Frau. Eine ethnologisch- belle). As poet and critic, Dr. wa Goro has historische Analyse [Power and Disempow- performed in Africa, Europe and the USA. erment of Women. An Ethnological and His- Her short stories include ―Deep Sea Fishing‖ torical Study] published in 1994. She founded and ―Heaven and Earth‖ addressing issues of and chairs the German Foundation for Gender gender from feminist perspectives. Many ex- Studies (Deutsche Stiftung Frauen- und ecutive committees have also benefited from Geschlechterforschung), Heidelberg, is Co- her input: the African Literature Association Editor of Feminist Europa, Review of Books and the Women‘s Studies Association (UK) as and works as a free-lance academic. well as the Advisory Committee for transla- [email protected] tion on the Arts Council of Great Britain and the British Centre for Literary Translation Sandra Frey holds a Ph. D. in political sci- (BCLT). Current President of the Association ence from IEP in Paris, and combines sociol- of African Literary Translators and Subtitlers ogy with political science. A member of the (ALTRAS) she was the founding President of women‘s studies group Equipe Simone- the Translation Caucus of the African Litera- SAGESSE and LCP/CNRS, she is an om- ture Association (TRACALA) and has served budswoman for professional equality. on the international Advisory Committee of [email protected]. the Encyclopedia of the African World. An advisory board member of the pioneering Margrit Gerste, born 1944, has been an edi- Equiano Center at University College London, tor at the German weekly DIE ZEIT since she participates on the Translation Advisory 1976. [email protected] Committee of Pen (UK). Having published

Currently an Associate fellow at the Institute and broadcast extensively in the field of hu- of Human Rights and Social Justice at London man rights for over 25 years, Wangui wa Goro Metropolitan University, Wangui wa Goro, works with several human, economic, politi- Ph.D., recently served as Senior research fel- cal, social, civil and cultural rights organizations. Kenyan born, Wangui lives in the UK. Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 78

Feminist Europa. Review of Books is happy boards of the European Journal of Women‟s to welcome Dr. Wangui wa Goro to our Studies and the Journal of International Associate Editor’s board. Women‟s Studies, she edits Feminist Europa. wagoro@googlemail. com Review of Books, chairs FORWARD – Ger- many against FGM, and, from 1991-2005 Yvonne Guichard-Claudic is associate pro- edited WISE Women‟s News for Women‘s fessor of sociology and department chair, International Studies Europe. On the advisory AES, Brest, France, cedex 3. board of Alice Schwarzer‘s FrauenMedia Yvonne. [email protected] Turm, she has been a Scholar-in-Residence at

Lotte Habermann-Horstmeier, Dr. med. Brandeis University and continues as a non- wrote her dissertation in neurophysiology at resident ―Fellow‖ of the W.E.B. DuBois Insti- Philipps University in Marburg/Lahn, and is a tute, Harvard University. Her translation of general practitioner with a secondary special- Fadumo Korn‘s Born in the Big Rains. A Me- ty in Education, majoring in pedagogy for the moir of Somalia and Survival (with Sabine disabled. She also studied psychology and Eichhorst. NY: The Feminist Press, 2006) has sociology at the Free University of Hagen. been featured in Feminist Europa. Review of Author of numerous academic articles and Books. A volume in the At the Interface series textbooks, she co-authored Psycho-social which she edited, Violence: „Mercurial Ges- Health in the Professions including her chap- talt‟, is scheduled for publication in 2008 with ter on gender and labor. In 2005 she became Rodopi in Amsterdam. Her chapter within the the vice-principal of the Steinbeis Transfer volume analyses Fatou Keita‘s Rebelle in con- Center (STZ) for Business and Executives in trast to Alice Walker‘s Possessing the Secret Villingen-Schwenningen in Germany. Since of Joy, both fictions against FGM. le- 2006 she has directed a number of research [email protected] projects in cooperation with the Technical Christiana Lambrinidis is a playwright, di- University of Furtwangen economics depart- rector, scholar of creative writing, educator, ment: ―Career Barriers for women executives, essayist, editor, writer, translator, and feminist part 1 and 2‖ and ―Women Students Moving activist, with degrees from Wellesley College into Executive Positions,‖ each with a chapter and Brown University. She is the founding on gender and medicine focusing on nutrition. director of the Center for Creative Writing & [email protected] Theatre for Conflict Resolution in Athens,

Ruth Klüger is the author of Still Alive, a Greece. [email protected] Holocaust memoir that has been translated Elise Liebscher writes reviews for German into nine languages and has received numer- newspapers such as the Berliner LeseZeichen. ous awards. She was born in Austria, immi- Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein e. V. and grated into the US in 1947, studied English other papers. www.luise-berlin.de and German literature at Hunter College and UC Berkeley and is a retired professor of Kirsten Liese, born in 1964 in Berlin, stu- German at the University of California Irvine. died music and German literature before [email protected] becoming a journalist, author and editor specialising in opera, chamber music, con- Katalin Koncz, Prof. Dr., teaches at the certs, cinema, and women in literature. She Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, has published in various German daily and over the years has been a frequent con- newspapers (Frankfurter Rundschau, Ber- tributor to WISE Women‟s News. liner Morgenpost, Frankfurter Allgemeine [email protected] Sonntagszeitung, Die Welt), has reported Tobe Levin is collegiate professor of English on the radio, contributed to professional at the University of Maryland in Europe and journals and produced on-line magazine adjunct at the University of Frankfurt. On the features (Kinofenster, BR-KinoKino). In 2005 she joined the association of German Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 79 film critics and participates on the Fipresci tations of Europe and in Romanian-German jury at international film festivals. literary collaborations. [email protected]. [email protected]

Rolf Löchel has been writing since 1999 for Professor of German history and education, literaturkritik.de, querelles-net.de, MEDIEN Ilse Nagelschmidt, Ph.D., taught gymnasium wissenschaft and Listen. In 1999 he joined the before joining the faculty of the Technical Caucus on the future of the center for Gender University of Education (Pädagogische Hoch- and Women‘s Studies, Philipps University schule) in Leipzig in 2006. In 1991 she comp- Marburg, Germany. His research targets leted her Habilitation (2nd doctorate), writing gender in literature, film and philosophy; fe- on Frauenliteratur in der DDR – soziales und minist literary criticism; deconstructive fe- literarisches Bedingungsgefüge. Wesen und minist and gender studies; feminist science Erscheinungsformen – untersucht an epischen fiction, and the history of the women‘s Werken mit zeitgenössischem Stoff [Women‘s movement. Important publications include Literature in the German De-mocratic Repub- Zukunftsbilder. Wie Frauen in dreißig Jahren lic―Social and Literary Contexts. Forms of leben werden – Prognosen und Visionen. (Ul- Being and Appearing in Contemporary Epic]. rike Helmer Verlag: Königstein im Taunus, Her research focuses on methodology in 2004, together with Karola Maltry, Barbara women‘s and gender studies and on twentieth Holland-Cunz, Nina Köllhofer und Renate century literature with special emphasis on Rausch). He has published one work of fic- works by women. In 2005 she became direc- tion: „Nummy. Unterwegs im Jahr 2033.” In: tor of the Women‘s and Gender Studies de- Zukunftsbilder, eds. v. Maltry et al., Ulrike partment at the University of Leipzig, Germa- Helmer Verlag: Königstein im Taunus. 2004. ny. She served as an external examiner for the S. 163-171. European Union project ―Women‘s Education rolf [email protected] for Equality‖ (2000) and is correctly directing the ESF Project ―Improving Career Opportun- Marina Massaguer, born in Tarragona in ities for Academic Women in the humanities 1982, is a lecturer in Catalan at the Rovira i and social sciences at the University of Leip- Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain. Tutor zig‖ (2007). [email protected] for the practical module of ―Language and speech‖ in the first edition of the course Born in 1964 in Budapest, Hungary, Andrea ―Women, Language and Communication‖ Petõ, Prof. Dr habil., is associate professor at organized by the URV Foundation, she has the University of Miskolc where she directs given talks and workshops on the use of non- the Equal Opportunity and Gender Studies sexist and androcentric language. She co- Center and serves as associate professor in the authored the research paper, ―The Diccionari Department of Gender Studies at the Central de la llengua catalana of the Institute of Cata- European University teaching courses on the lan Studies: an analysis from the point of view social and cultural history of Europe. Her of the representation of women in language.‖ books include Women in Hungarian Politics She belongs to the GRÈC network, part of the 1945-1951 (Columbia University Press/East GRÈC (Gender, Race, Ethnic group and European Monographs New York, 2003), and Class) research group of the Rovira i Virgili Geschlecht, Politik und Stalinismus in Un- University, Tarragona, Spain. garn. Eine Biographie von Júlia Rajk. Studien [email protected] zur Geschichte Ungarns, Bd. 12. (Gabriele Schäfer Verlag, 2007). Presently she is work- Monika Moyrer is a Visiting Assistant Pro- ing on the gendered memory of WWII and fessor at Valparaiso University. She received political extremisms. Andrea Petõ is chair of her Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of the feminist caucus in the Hungarian Socio- Minnesota (USA). Her dissertation explores logical Association as well as chair of the the aesthetics of collage in Herta Müller‘s division for gender studies and women‘s his- work. She is also interested in visual represen- Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 80 tory in the Hungarian Historical Society. In long to all or none." A member of German 2005 she was awarded Hungary‘s federal P.E.N., three of her books include Die kleinste Medal of Honor. [email protected] Fessel drückt mich unerträglich. Das Leben der Franziska zu Reventlow (1997); „Stumm Susanne Rauscher, born 1973, received her vor Glück“ Erzählungen (Munich: Knaus, MA in political science and works as a freel- 2005); and Das Revier der Amsel, a novel, to ance editor. She lives in Frankfurt am Main. appear in 2008. [email protected] [email protected] Claudia Vitale earned a degree in Foreign Eva Virgili Recasens is a doctoral student in Languages and Literatures from the University the Department of Anthropology, Philosophy of Florence, Italy, with a thesis on Else and Social Work, Rovira iVirgili University Lasker-Schűler‟s last collection of poems in Tarragona, Spain. [email protected] “Mein blaues Klavier.” In 2001 she did re-

Born 1961 in Krefeld, Germany, Elke search in Leipzig on Elsa Asenijeff‘s works Schmitter studied philosophy in Munich. An and Max Klinger‘s art, and in the same year editor for Fischer Verlag, in 1989 she became had a scholarship ―Borsa per giovani ricerca- a journalist writing for the Tageszeitung tori‖ at the University of Florence. From 2002 [Daily Paper] (1989-1995), and then for DIE to 2003 she enjoyed a research contract to ZEIT and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. work on ―German women writers and artists In 2001 she joined the editorial staff of Der in Florence.‖ Between 2002 and 2005 she Spiegel responsible for the culture section. helped organize conferences: ―German Cul- She has published several creative works: two ture in Florence‖ (2002), ―The City and the books of poetry, three novels, one collection Book III. International Conference. Marble of essays on Heinrich Heine and, most recent- Silence, Words on Stone: Florence‘s English ly, Vera‟s Daughter. (Berlin Verlag, 2006). Cemetery‖ (at Gabinetto Vieusseux), ―Net- [email protected] working Women‖ and ―The Medici Women in Europe‖ (University of Florence and the ―Ar- Born in Berlin, Dr. Heide Seele studied litera- chivio di Stato‖ of Florence). In 2003 she at- ture and philosophy in Heidelberg. Her disser- tended the Summer School of the Italian- tation analysed American writer Eudora German cultural association ―Villa Vigoni.‖ A Welty. Since 1967 she has been working on graduate student at the University of Pisa in the features section of the Rhein-Neckar- 2004, she received her Ph.D. in German Lit- Zeitung in Heidelberg, Germany, with empha- erature in 2007 from the University of Bonn sis on art, literature, theater and music. (Germany) with a dissertation entitled ―Liter- Among other publications are Alte Bücher ary Faces. Modern Examples in the Works of (Battenberg-Verlag) and Heidelberg (Bucher- Heinrich von Kleist and Franz Kafka.‖ Cur- Ver-lag). [email protected] rently associated with the Department of Modern Philology of the University of Flor- Franziska Sperr, born in 1949 in Munich, ence, she is exploring ―Language and Culture studied political science including two years Criticism from Kafka to Jelinek.‖ in Paris. From 1982-1987 she was editor of [email protected]. the political-literary magazine L'80 and from 1998-2001 press secretary for culture in Mu- Amy Young, Ph.D. 2004 from the University nich's municipal government. Presently she is of Nebraska-Lincoln, wrote a dissertation on a free-lance journalist and writer living in Lesbian Periodicals of the Weimar Republic, Berg on the Starnberger See and in Berlin, and her interests include feminism and Ger- The feuilleton section of the Süddeutsche Zei- man Studies, as well as translation. She is Vis- tung receives her work, as does SZ-Magazin iting Assistant Professor of German at the and numerous anthologies and literary maga- University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA. zines. She translates from English and French [email protected] and has produced a radio play, "I want to be-

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 81

Feminist Europa. Review of Books. Vol. 7, No 1, 2007. Vol. 8, No 1, 2008. 82

What is “Feminist Europa. Review of Books”?

Feminist Europa. Review of Books is a journal written in English which reviews feminist scholarship, creative and popular work by women published in Europe, (preferably) in languages other than English.

Feminist Europa. Review of Books was launched in 1998 as a project of the Division Communication and Cul- tural Practice of Women`s International Studies Europe (WISE) under whose generous auspices six issues were produced. Starting with its new issue 1:1-2 of 2001, it has been relaunched and is now published frequently by the German Foundation for Gender Studies, whose projects are in perfect tune with the goals pursued by our reviews journal.

Feminist Europa. Review of Books wants to strengthen ties among feminist scholars and women`s communities active in all European countries. Have you ever wondered what happens in the rest of Europe, outside of your own country and in languages you do not command? Our aim is to facilitate awareness of the productivity and debates within women`s studies across linguistic and cultural barriers in Europe, drawing on an extensive pool of scholars and activists committed to transcultural and transnational discourse. We host publications that have an impact on women`s culture and deserve to be known outside their local context; we foster the flow of information across national borders and language boundaries.

Feminist Europa. Review of Books is a unique project dedicated to transnational communication and committed to the creation of a new Europe, a Europe in which, i.e., feminists in France are perfectly aware of the discourse articulated by feminists in Ukraine, and communities in Seville can build networks with scholars in Sarajevo and activists in London.

Feminist Europa. Review of Books can greatly profit from the contributions offered by the networking community that the journal aims at creating. Our policy since the beginning has supported the presentation and diffusion of individual works and has encouraged reviewers to shape their contributions in different and personal ways. We believe that a community of women must speak in different voices and aim at offering a forum in which they can all find a place and a fruitful occasion for exchange and communication.

Clearly, Feminist Europa. Review of Books contributes to the objectives and projects pursued by the German Foundation for Gender Studies.

What is The German Foundation for Gender Studies? [Deutsche Stiftung Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung] It is a private initiative, which supports international projects. To make visible women’s agency, traditions, culture and contributions to the history of humanity — these are the Foundation’s aims.

Largely excluded from the historical record, women, like men, have always acted on the broader stage but too often remain unacknowledged. Such erasure inspired Dr.Waltraud and Dr.Roland Dumont du Voitel when, in December 1996, they inau- gurated Germany’s first feminist foundation.

Funded projects decipher the complex relations of power between the sexes derived from historically constructed gender differences and promote intercultural understanding among peoples, for academic research must descend from the ivory tower and address the broadest public.

If you wish to support our work by making a private contribution or donation we hold an account with the: Dresdner Bank AG (Frankfurt, Germany) Bank Sort Code 500 800 00 Account No. 94 109 1000 SWIFT-BIC: DRES DE FF IBAN: DE50 5008 0000 0941 0910 00

German Foundation for Gender Studies Friedrich-Weinbrenner-Str. 69 D-69126 Heidelberg, Germany Phone: +49 (0) 62 21 30 39 93 Fax: +49 (0) 62 21 30 30 15 E-Mail: [email protected] http://www.stiftung-frauenforschung.de