126-076 The German Enlightenment: Female Images

Note

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

37.5 points of Second/Third Year subjects.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject takes as its starting point the new perspective on the female body which was offered by 18th century science and which is expounded in Thomas Laqueur's study: 'Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud'. Works by women and men writers of the German Enlightenment will be analysed with a focus on their characterisation of relations between the sexes. Finally, the anthology 'Bist du Luftbild oder Leben?' Brautbriefe aus zwei Jahrhunderten will be used to illuminate the practice of 'the enlightenment of woman' among pairs of lovers of the period. Students should develop insights into the historical phenomena and culture of sentiment that dominated a time which laid the bases of modern literary psychology. The subject also sets out to make a contribution to the central debate of contemporary feminism on the issue: Is there such a thing as a female mode of written discourse?

Assessment

A 1000 word classpaper and an essay of 3000 words for 3rd year, 4000 words for 4th year.

Prescribed Texts

Extracts from the Anthology 'Bist du Luftbild oder Leben?' Brautbriefe aus zwei Jahrhunderten (1750-1833) will be distributed.

• G E Lessing, Miß Sara Sampson; Emilia Galotti.
• S von La Roche, Das Fraulein von Sternheim.