Domesticating the Public: Women's Discourse on Gender Roles in Nineteenth-Century Germany

In nineteenth-century Germany the domestic sphere, the ideological as well as physical context of female life during this period, featured prominently in women’s writing. Women writers, who by this time had started to dominate Germany’s book market, discussed the domestic sphere and the female gender roles shaped by it in a sheer endless variety of genres. This book introduces issues of female gender role formation and examines the way in which women’s writing contributed to the process. As a result a rich tapestry of female social discourse is uncovered exhibiting women’s strong commitment and involvement in shaping their destinies in view of a largely misogynistic political and legal national framework.