Identity in Transition

The Images of Working-class Women in Social Prose of the Vormärz (1840-1848)

• Author(s): Helen G. Morris-Keitel,
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Pages: 208
• ISBN_10: 0820422568
  ISBN_13: 9780820422565
  
• Language: en
• Categories: History / General , Literary Criticism / General , Literary Criticism / European / German , Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General , Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Women , Social Science / General , Social Science / Sociology / General ,

Description:... A detailed analysis of the narration of working-class women's lives in social prose by Ernst Dronke, Adolf Glassbrenner, Louise Otto, Georg Weerth and Ernst Willkomm reveals that in most instances, behind a veil of socio-historical details, there lies an ideal, universal notion of womanhood that revolves around children, the home, and religion. This realization has important ramifications for the understanding of social prose as a genre, as well as for the reinforcement and universalization of bourgeois gender roles in mid-nineteenth-century Germany.