Artikel
A German Jane Eyre? : Amely Bölte and the English governess novel
Verfasst von:
Müller-Adams, Elisa
in:
Women's writing
Wallingford:
2011
,
103 - 120 S.
Weitere Informationen
| Einrichtung: | Ariadne | Wien |
|---|---|
| Verfasst von: | Müller-Adams, Elisa |
| In: | Women's writing |
| Jahr: | 2011 |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Beschreibung: | |
| This article examines the influence of English literature and English women authors on the governess novels by the German author and women's rights campaigner Amely Bölte. Following Norbert Bachleitner's argument, who read Blte's novels about governesses as examples of the productive reception of Jane Eyre (1847) and Shirley (1849) in Germany, this article analyses how Bölte, who between 1839 and 1851 lived and worked as a governess and translator in England, while being in very close contact with the literary scene in London, used the genre of the English governess novel, “translating” it into the German context in order to develop her own form of the social novel to promote women's rights and thus allowing her to find a voice in the political discourse. The article first examines Bölte's early texts, Louise oder Die Deutsche in England (Louise or a German Woman in England, 1846) and Visitenbuch eines deutschen Arztes in London (Visiting Book of the German Doctor in London, 1852). The analysis of these texts shows how Blte, who was especially impressed by the English female social novel, experiments with the possibilities the figure of the governess can offer her to illustrate women's struggle for economic independence. In these texts, Bölte's German governesses in England seem marginalized in more than one aspect: as working middle-class women, they cross boundaries of gender and class; as foreigners, they have to assert their own national identity. In the later novels Harriet Wilson (1862) and Elisabeth oder Eine deutsche Jane Eyre (Elisabeth or a German Jane Eyre, 1873), which were both written after Blte's return to Germany, Bölte develops her use of the genre further, now choosing a German setting and a German context... | |
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