The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures ENGAGING WITH THE NATION: GERMAN WOMEN WRITERS OF THE VORMÄRZ AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY A Dissertation in German by Rebecca Zajdowicz © 2010 Rebecca Zajdowicz Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2010 The dissertation of Rebecca Zajdowicz was reviewed and approved* by the following: Daniel Purdy Associate Professor of German Graduate Program Officer for the Department of German Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Thomas Beebee Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and German Greg Eghigian Associate Professor of Modern European History Director of Science, Technology and Society Martina Kolb Assistant Professor of German and Comparative Literature B. Richard Page Associate Professor of German and Linguistics Head of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT According to the French philosopher Etienne Balibar, the histories of nations are always presented in the form of narratives. These narratives create the myths of national origins and seek to tell the story of a national community’s evolution through time to its moment of self-awareness. Literature then, which is often composed of narratives, lends itself well to the telling of national histories and provides the means to create cultural meaning and aid in the construction of national communities. The ascendant narrative of German nationhood during the first half of the nineteenth century was ethnocultural. Conceptions of nation and national community were based around notions of common ancestry and similarity of culture and language. This narrative was created out of a desire to resurrect a German national past which linked the German nationalist project to Protestantism through such figures as Martin Luther who fought against papal despotism and translated the Bible into German, and to middle-class, bourgeois values, since middle-class, intellectual men were the main proponents and champions of German nationalism. This also meant that German nationalism was conceived of in gendered terms, where ideally, men would occupy and have access to the public sphere and women would be relegated to the private sphere. This dissertation aims to look at the proliferation of meanings of Germanness and investigate the diversity and fluidity of national belonging in the Vormärz period (1815-1848) of German history through the examination of three iv novels written by three different German women, Fanny Lewald, Ida Hahn-Hahn and Louise Aston. Writing in the Vormärz period leading up to the Revolution of 1848, these women writers offer an interesting cross-section of nineteenth- century German society. Their novels accentuate the intersection of gender, class and religion and thus provide a good model for examining difference among women writers, as well as, the creation of alternative narratives of German national identity. Through the examination of these texts, one can explore the ways in which marginal groups engaged and critiqued this dominant vision of national identity and how they attempted to write a place for themselves in the German nation. Thus, my analysis presents one with the range of meanings of Germanness and allows one to see the multiplicity of voices which are always present in any debate. This study aims to expand on the growing body of work which is being done on nineteenth century German women writers. It also attempts to synthesize issues, such as gender, class and religion in women’s writing, which are often examined individually, but rarely in conjunction with one another. Further, it explores how women were able to create a public space for themselves through literature and engage in the culturally and politically charged discourses of the day. Feminist scholars owe much to the plight of these women and in analyzing their texts, one can gain a better understanding as to how diverse women positioned themselves vis á vis an emerging nationalist discourse that sought to exclude them from political participation. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................vii Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................1 A. Introduction............................................................................................1 B. Towards a Politics of Difference – Women and Nation.........................4 C. The Role of Literature in the Creation of National Identity ..................9 D. The German Vormärz and its Women Writers .....................................14 E. Fanny Lewald, Louise Aston and Ida Hahn-Hahn ................................21 Chapter 2 The Making of the German “Nation”....................................27 A. The “Nation” ...........................................................................................27 B. Causality and the Origins of the “Nation” ..............................................28 C. Roots of German National Identity ........................................................35 D. Creating the Boundaries of the “Nation” ...............................................38 E. Envisioning the Ideal German “Nation” ................................................40 1. Gender...............................................................................................43 2. Class..................................................................................................50 3. Ethnoreligious Identity ....................................................................56 F. The Nation as Imaginative Construct and Discursive Habit .................66 Chapter 3 Fanny Lewald’s novel Jenny...................................................71 A. Introduction............................................................................................71 B. Fanny Lewald’s Path to Mündigkeit.......................................................72 C. Jenny (1843) ...........................................................................................78 D. A Novel of Struggle.................................................................................83 E. Creating an Imagined German Community...........................................85 F. Creating Outsiders ..................................................................................90 G. The Jewish Question: Perception of the Other......................................94 1. Judenfeindschaft: Ferdinand and Madame Horn ...........................95 2. The Need for Conversion: Gustav Reinhard and the Pfarrerin ......98 3. Tolerance: Clara Horn and Graf Walter ..........................................102 H. The Jewish Question: Perception of the Self .........................................109 1. Steinheim: The Negative Jewish Stereotype ....................................109 2. Eduard Meier: Nationalization through Education.........................111 I. Critique of the Nation: Jenny Meier........................................................115 J. Conclusion ...............................................................................................120 Chapter 4 Louise Aston’s novel Aus dem Leben einer Frau..............122 A. Introduction............................................................................................122 vi B. The Early Years .......................................................................................124 C. Life in Berlin: A Turn Towards Radicalism............................................125 D. Louise Aston and “das deutsche Volk”...................................................130 E. Aus dem Leben einer Frau (1847)..........................................................132 F. Prolouge: Setting the Tone .....................................................................135 G. The Rural Parsonage: Voss’s Luise and Aston’s Critique of the Rural Idyll as German Nation ........................................................................137 H. Carlsbad: Aristocratic Abuse of the Nation ...........................................148 I. Oburn’s Factory: Linking Women’s Emancipation to the Plight of the Working Class.................................................................................154 J. Conclusion ...............................................................................................164 Chapter 5 Ida Hahn-Hahn’s novel Gräfin Faustine.............................166 A. Introduction............................................................................................166 B. The Evolution of an Emancipator ..........................................................168 C. Focus on Aristocratic Milieu...................................................................172 D. Gräfin Faustine (1841)...........................................................................178 E. Setting the Backdrop ..............................................................................180 F. Engaging with the Eternal Feminine......................................................181 G. Disputing “Nature” .................................................................................187 H. Attempting to Rewrite Woman’s Position.............................................190 I. Escape as Means of Change.....................................................................195 J. Conclusion ...............................................................................................298