Post-1945 Women’s Writing
Suggested Reading
A detailed bibliography for each author will be provided at the relevant lecture. The following texts provide a general introduction to women’s writing, criticism and theory. For a more detailed bibliography and suggestions for further reading, see Weblearn in due course.
Critical Literature on Post-1945 Women’s Writing
Bartel,Heike and Elizabeth Boa (eds), Pushing at Boundaries: Approaches to
Contemporary German Women Writers from Karen Duve to Jenny Erpenbeck (Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2006)
Brown,Hilda (ed.),Landmarks in German Women’s Writing (Oxford and Bern: Peter
Lang, 2007)
Bird, Stephanie, Women Writers and National Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003)
Bridge, Helen,Women’swriting and Historiography in the GDR(Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2002)
Catling, Jo (ed.), A History of Women’s Writing in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Eigler, Friederike, and Susanne Kord, The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature
(Westport/London: Greenwood Press, 1997)
Haines, Brigid and Margaret Littler, Contemporary Women’s Writing in German:
Changing the Subject (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
Herminghouse, Patricia,and Magda Mueller (eds.),German Feminist Writings(New
York/London: Continuum, 2001)
Jeremiah, Emily, Nomadic Ethics in Contemporary Women'sWriting in German: Strange
Subjects (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2012)
---., Troubling Maternity: Mothering, Agency, and Ethics in Women’s Writing in German
of the 1970s and 1980s (Leeds: Maney Publishing for the Modern Humanities Research Association and the Institute of Germanic Studies, University of London, 2003)
Knapp, Mona, and Gerd Labroisse (eds.),Frauen-Fragen in der deutschsprachigen
Literatur seit 1945 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1989)
Kosta, Barbara, Recasting Autobiography: Women’s Counterfictions in Contemporary
German Literature and Film (Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press, 1994)
Lukens, Nancy, and Dorothy Rosenberg (eds., transl.), Daughters of Eve: Women's
Writing from the German Democratic Republic (Lincoln/London: University of Nebraska Press, 1993)
Martens, Lorna, The Promised Land?: Feminist Writing in the German Democratic
Republic (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001)
Shafi, Monika,Housebound: Selfhood and Domestic Space in Contemporary German
Fiction (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2012)
Weedon, Chris,Feminism, Theory, and the Politics of Difference (Oxford: Blackwell,
1999)
--- (ed.), Post-war Women’s Writing in German: Feminist Political Approaches (Oxford:
Berghahn, 1997)
---., Die Frau in der DDR: An Anthology of Women’sWriting from the German
Democratic Republic (Oxford : Blackwell, 1988)
Weigel, Sigrid, Die Stimme der Medusa: Schreibweisen in der Gegenwartsliteratur
von Frauen(Reinbek: Rowohlt 1989)
General Feminist Theory and Criticism
Eagleton,Mary (ed.), Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader(Oxford: Blackwell, 1986)
Gamble,Sarah (ed.),The Routledge Companion to Feminism and Postfeminism
(London/New York: Routledge, 2001)
Hahn, Barbara, Unter falschem Namen: Von der schwierigen Autorschaft der Frauen
(Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1991)
Klüger, Ruth, Was Frauen schreiben (Munich: dtv, 2012)
---., Frauen lesen anders (Munich: dtv, 1997)
Schafer Scherrer, Doris, Schreiben Frauen anders?: Klischees auf dem Prüfstand
(Freiburg, Switzerland: Universitätsverlag, 1998)
Tyson, Lois, Using Critical Theory: How to Read and Write About Literature (London:
Routledge, 2011), chapter 6
Miscelleneous
You may find the following of general interest:
An overview of German-speaking women filmmakers
[accessed 10 January 2014]
Cusk, Rachel, ‘Shakespeare’s Daughters’, on women’s writing,
[accessed 10 January 2014]
Fitzgerald, Mary, The Impossible Art of ‘Writing for Women’,
[accessed 10 January 2014]
Resources provided by the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women's Writing
(CCWW) in London, 10 January 2014]
Helen Watanabe’s keynote address at the Women in German Studies 25th anniversary
conference: [accessed 10 January 2014]
1