Germaine de Staël in Germany : Gender and Literary Authority (1800-1850)

by uniting domestic fiction with political themes, Staël's epoch-making novel of female poetic genius, Corinne, left a more lasting literary legacy in a tradition of German female artist novels. Corinne exemplified the creative woman's dilemma between fame and love, and subsequent German novelists explore this conflict, while several also emulate Staël's myth-making in Corinne as a strategy for attributing transcendent genius to their heroines. Reading for subtexts of female self-expression and development brings to light counter-narratives of female creative transcendence, often evoked through allusions to mythological figures. Martin suggests a revision of German literary history by uncovering a neglected tradition of artist novels positioned between the German Künstlerroman and Staël's newly inaugurated international dialogue on women's role in public culture. [Publisher's text]

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