Respectability and Deviance : Nineteenth-Century German Women Writers and the Ambiguity of Representation

Studying a period of German literary history the text examines the social and cultural milieu of 19th-century women writers, along with the layers of interpretation and representation that inform their writing.The text demonstrates that these writings offer opportunities to examine such critical topics as canon formation; the relationship between gender, class, and popular culture; and women, professionalism and technology.The writers range from Annette von Droste-Hulshoff, who worked her way into the German canon, to the popular serial novelist writer, E.Marlitt. The text shows, through investigation into their work, ambiguities, compromises and subversions.