W. Arons 
Performance and Femininity in Eighteenth-Century German Women’s Writing 
The Impossible Act

In this book, Wendy Arons examines how women writers used theater and performance to investigate the problem of female subjectivity and to intervene in the dominant discourse about ideal femininity. Arons shows how contemporary demands for sincerity and authenticity placed a peculiar burden on women in the public sphere, especially on actresses, who – like professional writers – overstepped the boundaries of what was considered proper behavior for women. Paradoxically, in their representations of ideal women engaged in performance, these writers expose ideal femininity as an impossible act, even as they attempt to perform it in their writing and in their lives.

Table of Content

Sophie and the ‘Theater’ * Performance as Power: The History of Lady von Sternheim * The Performance of a Lifetime: Karoline Schulze-Kummerfeld * Antitheatricality and the Public Woman: Marianne Ehrmann’s Amalie: A True Story in Letters * The Eye of the Beholder: Elise Bürger’s ‘Aglaja’ and F. H. Unger’s Melanie, the Foundling * Play’s the Thing: Sophie Mereau’s ‘Marie’ and ‘Flight to the City’

About the author

Wendy Arons is Associate Professor of Dramatic Literature & Dramaturgy and Director of the ‘Performance and Ecology Public Art Initiative’ at Carnegie Mellon University, USA.