women in german - Coalition of Women in German

WOMEN IN GERMAN
Number 34
August 1984
NINTH ANNUAL WOMEN IN GERMAN CONFERENCE-RETREAT
October 18-21, 1984
Thompson's Island, Boston
Guest Authors:
3frmtraub JMorgner
~elga ~(blit~
Conference coordinators: Registration--Margaret Ward (Wellesley ColI.);
Program: Judith Jamieson (Providence Coil.) and Edith Waldstein (M.I.T.).
October 18
Thursday evening
5:00 - 7:00 pm
Arrival, registration, room assignment
6: 00 - 7: 00 pm
Steering Committee meeting
Barbara Wright, chair
7:00 - 8:00 pm
Buffet supper, social hour
8:00 - 10:00 pm
WHAT DO FEMINIST GERMANISTS WANT, AND NEED?
Coordinators:
Gail Newman (Williams Coli.) and Dorothy Rosenberg (Colby CoIL.)
Presenters: Dennis Sweet (UNH)--A Common Difference? Gay Liberation and Feminism;
Leslie Morris (U. Mass., Amherst)--The Chosen Other: Myths and Monoliths; RuthEllen Boetcher Joeres (U. Minnesota)--Germanistik in Women's Studies; Gail Newman
(Williams Coll.)--Hierarchies and Hiring; Marianne Goldscheider (Brooklyn, NY)-Inside or Outside Academe.
After brief presentations by the panelists, there will be small-group discussions
ot all the issues raised. The panelists and other group coordinators will continue to be available at mealtimes on Friday and Saturday to welcome new arrivals
and all others who wish to continue the discussion. We hope to use this structure
to help bring out the issues which divide us and which unite us.
•
-2October 19
8:30 am - breakfast
Friday morning
9:30 - 11:30 am
WOMEN AND HUMOR, OR
WHY ARE THESE WOMEN LAUGHING?
Coordinator:
Karen Achberger (St. Olaf Call.)
Panelists: Sheila Johnson (Rice U.)--Women's Humor, Positive and/or Negative:
Where Do We Find It In German Literature and Why Is It There?; Dagmar Lorenz
(Ohio State U.)--Das Unbehagen am Humor; Gertraud Gutzmann (Smith Coll.)-Humor und Parodie in Irmgard Keuns Nach Mitternacht; Jeanette Clausen (IPFW)-Lichte Augenblicke: Feminismus, Humor und Wissenschaft.
11:45 - 1:00 pm
Open for special interest group meetings,
sports activities, free time.
1:00 pm -
Friday afternoon
lunch
2:30 - 4:30 pm
PRACTICAL FEMINIST STRATEGIES FOR
TEACHING INTERMEDIATE GERMAN
Coordinators:
Sandy Frieden (U. Houston) and Marlene Heinemann (U. Wyoming)
Presenters:
Lucia Watson (U. Wisconsin-Madison)--An ABC of Women in Literature;
Victoria Joan Moessner (U. Alaska)--"Nehmen Sie es wie eine Frau, Madame, das
ist Emanzipation:"
Liedermacherinnen im Unterricht; Barbara Wright (U. Connecticut, Storrs)--What's in a Name? A Feminist Perspective on Communicative Competence.
The panel presentations will be followed by small-group discussion.
5:00 pm - dinner
6:00 Friday evening
Discussion Leader:
7:30 pm -- STRANDPARTY!
7:30 - 9:30 pm
Guest Author:
HELGA SCHUTZ
Patricia Herminghouse (U. Rochester).
An evening of readings by CDR author Helga SchUtz, to
be followed by open discussion.
LAST FERRY 10:00 PM
-3October 20
Saturday morning
8:30 am - breakfast
9:30 - 11 :30 am
WITCHES AND WISE WOMEN
Coordinators:
Patsy Baudoin (Schoenhof's Books) and Jeanette Clausen (IPFW).
Presenters:
Sigrid Brauner (U. California, Berkeley)--Hexenjagd in Gelehrtenkopfen; Ritta Jo Horsley (U. Mass., Boston)--On the Trail of the "Witches."
Social Roles of the Accused in European Witch Trials: Some Cases and Their
Significance; Dorothy Rosenberg (Colby Coll.)--Witches and Subversives in
Contemporary Literature.
11:45 - 1:00 pm
Open for special interest group meetings,
sports, free time.
Saturday afternoon
1:00 pm -
lunch
2:30 - 4:30 pm
WIG BUSINESS AND PLANNING MEETING
For agenda items, and to contribute to the agenda, see tear-out sheet, p. 15.
PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND. This is the time for YOU to have your say in what does
or doesn't get done in WIG during the coming year!
6:00 pm - dinner
Saturday evening
Discussion leader:
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Guest Author:
IRMTRAUD MORGNER
Christiane Zehl Romero (Tufts U.).
An evening of readings by GDR author Irmtraud Morgner, to be followed by open
discussion.
LAST FERRY 10:00 PM
IRMTRAUD MORGNER and HELGA SCHUTZ in the US:
our two guest authors will spend a
total of about 3 weeks in the US, and will visit several university campuses to
give readings.
At this writing, their exact itinerary isn't known.
If you are
interested in finding out where they'll be before and after the WIG conference,
call Edith Waldstein (M.I.T.), or Margaret Ward (Wellesley ColI.), or Judith
Jamieson (Providence ColI.).
-4October 21
Sunday morning
8:30 am - breakfast
9:00 - 11:30 am
CONCLUDING SESSION:
WIG MEMBERS SPEAK OUT
Coordinators:
Sandy Frieden (U. Houston) and Margaret Ward (Wellesley ColI.).
Discussion of feelings, issues, problems and successes which have come up during
the conference. In past years, this final open discussion has proven to be a
very important forum for evaluating the conference and sharing both emotional
and intellectual concerns regarding WIG and our individual relationship to it.
So please plan to attend.
12:45 pm - lunch
Ferries departing from Thompson's Island at 9 am, 11 am and 1 pm.
* * * * * * * * * * *
:&
_ t
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION: for the conference registration form, see page 13
of this newsletter. The deadline for registering is September 15, 1984. Why
so early? you may be wondering. Well, it's because we have to let the folks on
Thompson's Island know one month in advance how many of us there'll be and on
which nights; arrival times~b~t transportation can be arranged) and that
sort of thing. Also, this year there is no "overflow space" for us on the
Island; only one building, with 63 beds, has been reserved for WIG. In other
words, if you register late, you might have to find your own place to sleep!
So do it now! Before you forget! Help us conference organizers make this our
most efficient WIG yet.
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AN EVENING WITH HELGA SCHUTZ
Friday, October 19, 7:30 pm
Friday evening's program will feature GDR author Helga Schutz in reading and
discussion of her works. Best known to Western readers as the author of the
moving "Jette" stories, Helga Schutz is also recognized as an important figure
in the film world of the GDR. Trained at the Deutsche Hochschule fur Filmkunst
at Potsdam/Babelsberg and married to the well-known director Egon Gunther, she
has written the scenarios to important films such as the Georg Buchner story
"Addio, piccola mia" (1979) and "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" (1976).
Highly autobiographical in nature, Schutz' best-known novels and stories are
told from the perspective of a girl, Jette, who--like the author--grows up under
fascism in a vi1 lage in Silesia [Vorgeschichten oder Schone Gegend Probstcin,
1970] and is taken to Dresden in 1944 at the age of seven by her grandparl'nts
[Jette in Dresden (West German edition: Madchenratsel), 1977J. Further Jette
episodes are contained in the volumes Das Erdbeben bei Sangerhausen und andere
-5-
AN EVENING WITH HELGA SCHUTZ (continued)
Geschichten (1972) and Festbeleuchtung (1973).
In Schlitz' latest novel,
Erziehung ~ Chorgesang, Jette is a young woman who has dropped her nickname
in favor of the more adult "Julia." It is not the serial nature of the Jette
stories but rather their unvarnished account of the experience of fascism and
its effects on a girl and her small world which accounts for the attention that
has been paid to Schlitz' work and her impact on readers in both East and West
Germany. Those familiar with Christa Wolf's Kindheitsmuster may wish to compare
how differently the two authors attempt to deal authentically with the same
experience, Wolf with extraordinary complexity and Schlitz with childlike naivete.
Most recently, Helga Schutz published Martin Luther, Eine Erzahlung fur den
Film (1983). With the exception of Vorgeschichten, which is out of print, West
German editions of all her works have been ordered by Patsy Baudoin and can be
obtained through Schoenhof's Foreign Books in Cambridge, Mass.
Patricia Herminghouse
U. Rochester
AN EVENING WITH IRMTRAUD MORGNER
Saturday, October 20, 7:00 pm
Saturday evening's program will be devoted to readings by Irmtraud Morgner,
followed by discussion. Morgner is widely acclaimed as the most innovative,
witty and pro-feminist writer in the GDR today. Her concern has always been to
bridge the gap between theory--the much-touted legal equality for women in the
GDR--and the realities of women's daily lives.
In Morgner's books, nothing is
impossible.
In Trobadora Beatriz (1974), we followed the adventures of a medieval
troubadour who awakens after an 800-year sleep and travels to the GDR in search of
a place that is livable for women.
(Note the words "in search of"). Now, ten
years later, we have the long-awaited second book of the planned trilogy, and we
hear the author of Amanda (1983) grumbling that a certain Irmtraud Morgner didn't
tell the story of Beatriz correctly!
So Beatriz is brought back again, this time
as a siren. Morgner's stories have become more fantastic, the voices--and silences-harder to overhear, the formal experimentation bolder as the realities of the contemporary world have become more dangerous, more urgent.
Irmtraud Morgner creates
complex and visionary pictures of women's struggles to enter history and humanize
the world.
lrmtraud Morgner's major works are:
Hochzeit in Konstantinopel (Berlin/DDR &
Weimar 1968, Darmstadt & Neuwied 1979); Gaukle;Tegende.
Eine Spielfraungeschichte
(Berlin/DDR 1971, Mlinchen 1971); Die wundersamen Reisen Gustavs des Weltfahrers
(Berlinl DDR & Weimar 1972, Mlinchen1l973); Leben und Abenteuer der Trobadora
Beatriz nach Zeugnissen ihrcr Spielfrau Laura (Berlin/DDR & Weimar 1974, Darmstadt
und Neuwied 1976); Amanda. Ein Hexenroman (Berlin & Weimar 1983, Darmstadt &
Ncuwied 1983).
Jeanette Clausen
Indiana U. - Purdue U., Fort Wayne
To order books, contact:
Schoenhof's Foreign Books, 76A Mount Auburn St.,
Cambridge, MA 02138.
Tel. (617) 547-8855.
-6Good ~ from Wiggies:
CHARLOTTE ARMSTER has a new job in the German Dept. at
Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA. EVELYN BECK has accepted the position of
Women's Studies Director at the University of Maryland. MARIANNE BURKHARD
(U. Illinois) has a visiting appointment at the University of Notre Dame for the
fall 1984 semester.
RUTH DAWSON (U. Hawaii) wrote that she wouldn't be coming
to MLA alone this year--she's expecting a baby the end of July. HELEN FEHERVARY
(Ohio State U.) has a daughter, a six-year-old from (I think) El Salvador who
joined her last spring. GERTRAUD GUTZMANN (Smith College) got t e n u r e,
hurray!
RENNY HARRIGAN (U. Wisconsin-Milwaukee) is expecting a baby in
September.
EDNA SPITZ (Stanford) is in Germany on an NEH grant, doing research
on women's autobiographies in Marbach and Berlin. EDIE WALDSTEIN (M.I.T.) has a
baby daughter, born in June 1984, and will be taking a leave from teaching during
the fall semester.
SYDNA WEISS (Bunny) was invited to teach a course on women in
German literature at Middlebury College during summer 1984. The invitation was
one of the after-effects of the WIG syllabi collection that Bunny edited, together
with SIDONIE CASSIRER.
Speaking of the WIG syllabi collection, copies are still available.
Just send
$2.00 for postage and handling to Jeanette Clausen, newsletter address.
* * * * * * * * * * *
SUPPORT WIG MEMBERS--Buy our books!
It is very important that we all support feminist scholarship by ordering the new
books on women for our university libraries as well as for our personal use. To
illustrate just how important it is:
Fischer Verlag, which has published many
useful new titles in the series "Die Frau in der Gesellschaft," has told a
prospective author that more works on women won't be scheduled if those recently
published don't sell.
Please BE SURE that your library orders the following
two Fischer titles, both by WIG members (for reviews of these books, see the
March 1984 issue of the WIG newsletter)--if they aren't sold soon, they will be
"verramscht."
Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres, Die Anfange der deutschen Frauenbewegung:
Otto-Peters, 1983. Fischer Taschenbuch 3729. DM 12,80.
Germaine Goetzinger, Fur die Selbstverwirklichung der Frau:
Fischer Taschenbuch 3743.
OM 12,80.
Louise
Louise Aston, 1983.
Also, please order the long-announced, endlessly awaited, hard-to-believe-butit's-finally-out anthology: German Feminism: Readings in Politics and Literature, ed. Edith Hoshino Altbach, Jeanette Clausen, Dagmar Schultz. Naomi
Stephan (Albany, NY:
State University of New York Press, 1984). 389 pages.
$12.95 paper.
WIG member Liselotte Cumpel (U. Minnesota, Morris) announces her new book
Metaphor Reexamined.
~ Non-Aristotelian Perspective (Bloomington:
Indiana
University Press, 1984). Published in the series "Advances in Semiotics," ed.
Thomas A. Sebeok.
More new titles will be reviewed in the November issue of the WIG newsletter.
-7-
CONF€R€NC€S
A conference on Women and Literature is scheduled for November 2-3, 1984 at
the Goethe House, New York.
On Friday evening, November 2, there will be a
panel discussion "American and German Women Writers Exchange Experiences and
Ideas." Panel moderator is Angelika Bammer (Vanderbilt U.); panelists include
Carolyn Forche, Jana Harris, Roberta Sklar, Friederike Roth, Gabriele Wohmann,
Gisela von Wysocki. The authors will read from'their works on Saturday,
November 3. For more information, contact the Goethe House, 1014 Fifth Ave.,
New York 10028. Tel. (212) 744-8989.
A conference on Mathilde Franziska Anneke is being planned for this winter
(probably February) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Anneke died in Milwaukee on
November 24, 1884; she is the oldest feminist of German descent in this country.
For further information on the conference plans, contact Renny Harrigan, Women's
Studies Office, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
53211.
Tel. (414) 963-5918.
BOOK R€\JI€WS
ANNEKE, Mathilde Franziska.
Die gebrochenen Ketten: Erzahlungen, Reportagen
und Reden (1861-1873).
Ed. Maria Wagner. Stuttgarter Nachdriicke zu Literatur
des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, vol. 11. Stuttgart:
Hans-Dieter Heinz
Akademischer Verlag (1983).
226 pp. DM 18.
Like other Forty-Eighters, feminist writer and teacher Mathilde Franziska Anneke
was firmly committed to the anti-slavery position during the Civil War.
The
title of the present anthology, which it shares with the first selection in the
volume, clearly reflects this stand.
Both "Ketten" and the second short story
"Sclaven-Auction" expose the evils of the sexual exploitation of black female
slaves. The central theme of "Uhland in Texas" is the fate of a benign German
estate-owning and slave-holding family during the Civil War. All three fictional
pieces were originally serialized in German-American newspapers.
In placing
them together under the present title, editor Maria Wagner realizes the thwarted
efforts of the author, who was unable to publish such an anthology in her lifetime. The addition of journalistic reporting and drafts of speeches makes the
collection more representative of Anneke's work as journalist and feminist
lecturer.
A historical account of Indian/European encounters on Lake Michigan
is followed by two Civil War reports, one about the dramatic death of a Union
officer during the occupation of Alexandria, Virginia; the other offering
behind-the-scenes detail of the battle of Fort Sumpter. They are intensely
patriotic on behalf ot the Union, fluidly written and very dramatic.
The last
two pieces are feminist speeches, one held on the occasion of the opening of a
German hall in Milwaukee; the other, made on behalf of Susan B. Anthony, pleads
for voting rights for women and shows a good understanding of common law and
Anthony's test case.
Both are eloquent and passionate appeals for the emancipation of women.
Anneke is at her best here. The quality of her journalistic prose
and of her rhetoric exceeds that of her fiction.
However, like the latter, the
fiction in this volume makes for fascinating reading and is of great historical,
sociological and feminist interest. This should be on all our shelves; useful
for advanced classes too.
Contains a good introduction.
Martha Wallach
U. Wisconsin-Green Bay
-8-
BOOK REVIEWS (continued)
FriedrLchsmeyer, Sara. The Androgyne in Early German Romanticism.
Frankfurt/Main, New York: Peter Lang, 1983.
Bern,
In this age of Boy George and Michael Jackson, of female vice-presidents and
high-fashion menswear for women (to encompass the trivial and the revolutionary!),
an historical study of androgyny is certainly timely. Sara Friedrichsmeyer's
The Androgyne in Early German Romanticism provides a survey of the idea from its
mythical and religious inception through the early 19th century, but ultimately
leaves intact our curiosity about the sociopolitical and social-psychological
need for an androgynous ideal in a given society, and the implications of such an
ideal for feminists. The book is in need of a methodological introduction.
Although Friedrichsmeyer periodically makes reference to the controversial nature
of this or that Romantic notion from the contemporary feminist point of view, it
is unclear throughout the book where she herself stands on these issues. No
contemporary feminist theory, nor any contemporary theory of early Romanticism,
is discussed in any detail.
The book's subtitle, "Friedrich Schlegel, Navalis and the Metaphysics of Love,"
already implies a primarily geistesgeschichtliche orientation. The first two
chapters provide a useful, though largely descriptive, overview of the history
of the androgynous ideal leading to Navalis and Schlegel. In this section and
throughout the book, I would welcome the replacement of "man" by "human" in her
discussions. The chapters on Navalis represent an important step toward
uncovering the complex significance of women and the "female" in his works.
Friedrichsmeyer often manages to crystallize Navalis's complex aesthetics,
pointing out his basic tendency toward the positing of polarities in the universe,
and the search for their sublation as a synthetic unity. She is justifiably
critical of the "suggestion of narcissism" associated with Navalis's preoccupation with individual male development (p. 104). However, she falls into some of
the traditional traps of one-dimensional Navalis interpretation. To attribute
to Navalis an exclusive identification of women with "non-rational, unthinking,
organic nature" (p. 67, see also p. 78) is to ignore his critical stance toward
Fichte's Ich/NichtIch dichotomy and its implications for the philosophy of nature.
Similarly, Friedrichsmeyer's assertion that Navalis subscribes to a Geschichtsphilosophie based on "predestination" (p. 79) reveals a superficial understanding
of his developmental theory. Finally, her statement that "there is curiously
little advocacy of erotic love" (p. 78) in Navalis's works is off the mark.
Friedrichsmeyer would have done well to dive into the "Klingsohr-Marchen" in
order to understand both the central role of eroticism and some of the more active
and fascinating female figures in Navalis's novel.
Friedrichsmeyer's discussion of Friedrich Schlegel's subtle development trom
women's/ human rights advocate to metaphysical Romantic is the strongest part of
the book. It represents one of the only studies of the early Greek works from
the perspective at their notion of female equality. I disagree with her rather
arbitrary assumption that Schlegel's embrace of male and female polar opposites
as necessary prerequisites for androgynous synthesis represented a concession to
the Romantic "convention" of his friends, and a denial of his own "instinct"
towardilan androgyny synonymous with sexual equality" (p. 161). On the whole,
though, 1 find her discussion of Schlegel to be well-balanced and more concerned
with historical context and critical content than the Navalis chapters. Friedrichsmeyer's book is 3 limited but useful contribution to the ongOing discussion
of Romanticism's historical and contemporary relevance from a feminist perspective.
Gail M. Newman
Williams College
-9-
BOOK REVIEWS (continued)
Treder, Uta. Von der Hexe ~ Hysterikerin. Zur Verfestigungsgeschichte des
"Ewig Weiblichen." Bonn: Bouvier, 1984. (Abhandlungen zur Kunst-, Musikund Literaturwissenschaft, Band 345).
Es lohnt sich, sich durch das erste Kapitel mit seiner zu dichten, daher oft
unklaren theoretischen Konstruktion zum Problem Geschichtslosigkeit der Frau
und Weiblichkeitsbilder in der Fiktion durchzubeissen. Was da angerissen wird,
wird durch die Textanalyse konkret und spannend, wenn Uta Treder in ihrer
Analyse realistischer Romane der Grlinderzeit auf Spurensicherung des Weiblichen
geht. Der Prozess der Domestizierung der blirgerlichen Frau wird anhand der
weiblichen Protagonistinnen aus Kellers und Fontanes Romanen nochmals nachgezeichnet. Von Hexen ist dabei weniger die Rede; doch werden die Hexenprozesse
im theoretischen Vorspann als Bezugspunkt herangezogen. Sie markieren den
ersten Meilenstein auf dem Weg zur Ausblirgerung der Frau aus der Geschichte,
und. wie Treder zeigt, feiert die Hexe in der Gestalt der Hysterikerin Auferstehung. Die fiktiven Gestalten der Cecile und Effie dokumentieren, wie auf
einer neuen Ebene der Sinnlichkeit, Vitalit§t und potentiellen Eigenst~ndig­
kelt der Frau der Prozess gemacht wird.
Die ersten Kapitel liber die kindliche Hexe Meret, die untergehende Matriarchin
Frau Margret, die "femme fragile" Cecile und die "nervose" Effi lesen sich wie
ein Gang durchs Horrorkabinett des Erziehungsprozesses zur abgerichteten Weibllchkeit, dessen Ziel die vollige Entfremdung der Frau von sich selbst ist.
Gleichzeitig entmythisiert Treder auch die "reaU stische Erz§hldistanz" der
mannlichen Autoren; ihrc Sprache tr~gt Wlinsche und Herrschaftsgesten, die ihre
Verstrickung in und Teilnahme an dem Domestizierungsprozess der Frau verraten.
Die Ambivalenz des bUrgcrlichen Frauenbildes zwischen Idealisierung und Damonisierung enth§lt aber auch seine dialektische Dimension und somit den Hinweis
auf seine Uberwindbarkeit. Kontrapunktische bringt Treder hierflir die Analyse
der Frauengestalten Adine und Fentischka aus zwei Erz~hlungen von Lou AndreasSalome ein--flir mich der verblUffendste Teil von Treders Buch. Aus der Perspektive der weiblichen Autorin werden Facetten der Domestizierung wie weiblicher
Masochismus und die Idealisierung des Mannes durch die Frau zu potentiellen
Ans§tzen eines Bewusstseinprozesses der Frau liber die eigene UnterdrUckung.
Der Weg zur weiblichen Identit§t und Emanzipation fUhrt, wie Lou Andreas-Salome
an Fentischka demonstriert, liber die Redefinition der dem repressiven Weiblichkeitsbild zugrunde liegenden Annahme der weiblichen Natur. Damit nimmt Lou
Andreas-Salome die IJmformulierung weiblicher Natur vorweg, wie er heute vom
organischen Teil der Frauenbewegung wie Juliet Mitchell, Luce Irigaray und anderen
vertreten wird.
Leider fehlt eine Bibliographie; ansonsten ist Uta Treders Analyse genau das, was
ich mir als SchUtzenhilfe zum Thema Weiblichkeit in der Literatur fUr Examensoder Kursvorbereitungen immer wUnsche: eine feministische Literaturkritik konkret am Text, voller Ansatze und Anregungen zur Diskussion.
Sigrid Brauner
U. California, Berkeley
The editorial office ot IIYPATIA: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy has moved.
Papers or inquiries to Margaret Simons, ed., HYPATIA, Dept. oE Philosophical
Studies, Box 43, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 62025.
-10-
WIG AT AATG
AATG Annual Meeting
November 16-18, 1984
Chicago
Women and Peace
Presiding:
Irmgard Hunt (Texas Tech U., Lubbock) and Irmgard C. Taylor (SUNY,
Cortland)
Presenters: (1) Edith Waldstein (M.I.T.), "Bertha von Suttner and the European
Peace Movement of the Early 20th Century;" (2) Sara Friedrichsmeyer (U. Cincinnati), "From Revolutionary to Pacifist: The Diaries of Kathe Kollwitz;"
(3) Tineke Ritmeester (Washington U.), "Women and Peace."
Women and German Film
Presiding:
Barbara Hyams (U. Tulsa)
Presenters: (1) Bruce Murray (Williams Coll.), "Women in vleimar Cinema;" (2)
Hannelore Wilfert (Russell Sage ColI.), "The Image of Women in Feature Films of
the Third Reich;" (3) Lynne Tatlock (Washington U.), "Introducing Students to a
New Way of Viewing: Three Feminist Films from the New German Cinema;" (4)
Angelika Bammer (Vanderbilt U.), "Through a Daughter's Eyes: Helma SandersBrahms' Germany, Pale Mother."
WIG AT MlA
MLA Annual Convention
December 27-30, 1984
Washington, D.C.
(Re)Making Myth in German Women's Writing
December 28, 7:15-8:30 pm
State, Hilton
Presiding:
Angelika Bammer (Vanderbilt U.)
Presenters: (1) Marilyn Sibley Fries (Yale U.), "The Dedalus Myth in Recent GDR
Women's Fiction;" (2) Gerlinde M. Geiger (Smith Coll.), "Isis/Orisis in Bachmann's Franza;" (3) Christiane Kramer (Ohio State U.), "Der Begriff 'Mythos'
bei Christa WalL"
-11WIG AT MLA (continued)
Appropriating Faust
December 29, 3:30 pm
Hemisphere, Hilton
Presiding:
Konstanze
B~umer
(Syracuse U.) and Gerlinde Geiger (Smith ColI.)
Presenters: (1) Karen Achberger (St. Olaf Coll.), "Mann's Doktor Faustus in
Bachmann's Malina and Morgner's Trobadora Beatriz;" (2) Sheila Johnson (Rice U.),
"Faust gerichtet in Morgner's Amanda;" (3) Linda Lindsay (Allegheny CoIL.), "The
Feminine in Creativity in Goethe's Faust."
Reevaluating Ingeborg Bachmann's Prose
December 29, 8:30-9:45 am
Military, Hilton
A Special Session.
Presiding:
Karen Achberger (St. Olaf ColI.)
Presenters: (1) Peter Nutting (Cornell U.), '''Ein Stuck wenig realisiertes
Osterreich': The Moral Topography of 'Drei Wege zum See; '" (2) Judith Harris
(U. Illinois, Urbana), "The Authority of Language in Malina and Franza;" (3)
Ritta Jo Horsley (U. Mass., Boston), "Rereading 'Undine geht': Bachmann and
Feminist Theory."
Respondent:
Sara L0nnox (U. Mass., Amherst).
The fall 1984 issue of the Women's Studies Quarterly will contain the Women in
German textbook reviews, an article about feminism and teaching materials by Barbara
Wright, and other information about WIG--watch for the issue, and be proud of us!
WIG Chapter in New York: The New York WIG chapter has continued to meet regularly
and the members have initiated several promising-sounding projects, including one
on translation. The topics for their first fall meeting (September 19, 18 Uhr) are
to continue discussion of Heimat/Mutter, and to begin discussion of Etty Hillesum's
"An Interrupted Life." Anyone interested in more information should contact
Gesine Worm at the Goethe House Library, 1014 Fifth Avenue, New York 10028.
Call tor contributions: Gudula Lorez sucht bis Ende Dezember 1984 Geschichten
fur eine neue Anthologie. Thema "Machtgeluste." Anschrift: Verlag Gudula
Lorez, Goltzstr. 11, 1000 Berlin 30.
AHEM! There is still a need for a new editor of the WIG newsletter. Jeanette is
not going to do it any more. Please volunteer for this job, or suggest someone
(with her permission). The job would probably be best handled at a larger department, where more than one person could help out and the university could provide
facilities and (possibly) a bit of financial support.
If you think you might be
interested but aren't sure what's all involved, please give me a call (219 482-5431)
and I'll be glad to tell you all about it. Call soon--ich halt's nicht viel
l~nger aus.
-- Jeanette Clausen, MFL, IPFW. (Newsletter address.)
-12Read and gnash your teeth (who says we've come a long way?) . • • •
OFFENER BRIEF AN DIE JOHANNES GUTENBERG-UNIVERSITAT MAINZ
BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND
den 18. Juni 1984
z. Hd. des Comites:
Renate von Bardeleben, Professor, Amerikanistik
Dietrich Briesemeister, Professor, Spanisch
Juan Bruce-Novoa, Fulbright Dozent, Chicano Studien
An der Hochschule 2
6728 Germersheim
Sehr geehrte Kollegen:
Wie wir erfahren haben, wird die Universitat Mainz im Juli 1984 eine Konferenz
zum Thema Chicano Kultur veranstalten. Wir begrUssen sehr diese Initiative und
finden es sehr wichtig, dass die Chicano Kultur in der Bundesrepublik zur
Kenntnis genommen wird und dass sie in die wissenschaftliche Diskussion Aufnahme
findet.
Sehr bedauern wir jedoch, dass aus USA--mit einer Ausnahme--ausschliesslich
m~nnliche Vertreter tei lnehmen werden.
Uns ist klar, dass sich die Organisatoren
nur ungenUgend urn die Teilnahme von Chicanas bemUht haben. Obwohl die Kriterien
der Teilnehmerauswahl uns unbekannt sind, ist uns als Frauen das Resultat sehr
bekannt.
Dass es viele qualifizierte Chicana Literaturwissenschaftlerinnen und auch
Schriftstellerinnen gibt--bei einer Bevolkerungszahl von etwa 20 Millionen--ist
kein Geheimnis. Dass nur eine Chicana an der Mainzer Tagung teilnehmen wird,
verdient nicht die Bezeichnung "Zufall." Wir schreiben Ihnen, weil wir wissen,
dass die Diskriminierung gegen Frauen oft unbewusst geschieht, und urn Ihnen
des sen bewusst zu machen.
Als Chicanas und Mitglieder verschiedener Organisationen, einschliesslich von
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social beklagen wir diesen Sachverhalt vor der
Offentlichkeit. Wir werden uns kUnftig immer dort zu Wort melden, wo die Frauen
der Dritten Welt als inexistent behandelt werden.
Mit freundlichem Gruss
(A list of )0 signatures was attached to the letter, which was sent to WIG by
Dr. Yolanda Broyles. For more information. contact her at the University of
Texas at San Antonio, 78285.)
In the thick of canning green beans, helping her
daughter turn three, typing a couple of promotion
cases and working full time at her regular job, Connie
Munk typed, cut, pasted and did the miscellaneous other
work necessary to transform a messy pile of papers into
the neat, orderly newsletter you're holding in your hands. The dark-ink drawings
on pp. 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12 by Erin Clausen; the line cartoons are from Emma and
other sundry feminist sources.
-13REGISTRATION FORM
Women in German Annual Conference
Thompson's Island, Boston, MA
October 18-21, 1984
Complete both sides of form.
Telephone:
Name:
~(
____~)________________________
Address (after Sept. 15):
#
I.
Street
Town
State
Zip
Registration
Choose the plan you prefer from section A, B or C below.
Costs for overnight
accommodation (A) include conference expenses, lodging, three meals per day and boat
transportation to/from the island. As in past years, we have calculated registration
fees on a dual price structure to try to keep the conference more affordable for
students and the unemployed.
If you "technically" fall into one of those categories
but have adequate outside income, please consider paying the "employed" rate--this
will help WIG partially subsidize travel for those who must come long distances.
A.
Overnight accommodation (Please check your choice):
2 Nights
Employed
$105.00
Student/unemployed
50.00
3 Nights
Employed
$150.00
Student/unemployed
70.00
I intend to spend the night(s) of Oct.
Island.
B.
18
19
20 (please circle) on Thompson's
Day-hopping (Please check your choice):
1.
Conference attendance only:
you plan to attend:
Employed:
includes boat transportation.
Total
2.
Meals.
Please check days
Student/Unemployed:
$20.00/day
$15.00/day
Oct. 19
Oct. 20
Oc t. 21
Oct. 19
Oct. 20
Oct. 21
x $20
=c
Total
=c
x $15
=c
Please check the meals you plan to eat on Thompson's Island:
Dinner
($10.00 each)
Fri.
Sat.
Sun.
Lunch
($6.00 each)
Total
C.
1 Night
Employed
$60.00
Student/unemployed
35.00
~
Thurs.
Fri.
Sat.
Total
x $6 -
"-
x $10
Combination plan:
If you wish to combine services from A and B, please mark the appropriate boxes,
figure your expenses from A and B, and then tally the total.
Cost of services from A:
Cost of services from B:
Total:
PLEASE NOTE:
$
$
$
Conference participants must become members of Women in German.
-14Name:
II.
Transportation Plans
I will arrive
I wi 11 depart
(day, time) by
(day, time) by
;'{
--------------------------------
>'C(Please indicate means, i.e., Airline Flight #, busline, Amtrack, car, etc.)
Please enclose a SASE for information regarding land/boat information.
Please check if you are a student/unemployed and would like help covering your
travel expenses, especially for long-distance travel. Cost of round-trip travel
from your home to the conference: $
------
(After all conference bills are paid, we will divide any remaining funds on a percentage basis among those of you who request travel assistance. We very much want
to help those who need it, but unfortunately we can't guarantee that money will be
left after expenses or predict what percentage you may be reimbursed, especially
since we have two invited guests this year.)
III.
Childcare: WIG will provide childcare at the conference but there is a charge for
room and board for children over 2 (same as student/unemployed rate, over). Please
include this part in your registration calculations. (In 1982 we were able to
reimburse part of this expense, but it cannot be guaranteed in advance.)
I plan on bringing the following child (children) to the WIG conference:
1.
Name:
Age
2.
Name:
Age
Please check as appropriate:
Will share my room/bed (circle)
Needs crib
Needs own room/bed (circle)
Please note special needs or other relevant information (e.g. I can bring porta-crib;
toys) :
IV.
Natural Foods Option: Although the conference center provides attractive vegetarian
menu choices, a natural foods option (vegetarian) may be available for a modest surcharge ($10 or less), to be collected at the conference. If you choose this option,
please check below. We need to know in advance in order to provide enough food.
I desire the natural foods option for the following meals:
Oct. 18
-- supper
Oct. 19
Oct. 20
Oct. 21
breakfast
lunch
dinner
breakfast
lunch
dinner
breakfast
lunch
Please make your check out to "Women in German" and send it with this registration
form and stamped, self-addressed envelope to:
Margaret Ward
4 Solon Street
Wellesley, MA 02181
PLEASE NOTE:
If you register after September ~, we cannot guarantee you overnight
accommodation and must charge you a late registration fee of $15.00.
Conference participants must become members of Women in German.
I
-15-
WIG Agenda, 1984-85
Name
Phone(s)
Address
Please fill in any or all of the following items and send this sheet to Barbara Wright
by 1 October 1984. Barbara will collate the responses for the WIG business meeting
agenda for the October conference. REMEMBER that you are welcome (even urged!) to
participate in WIG planning whether you are able to attend the October meeting or not.
I.
Nominations for WIG Steering Committee.
The six SC members serve staggered 3-year terms (see Nov. 1982 newsletter).
Please include name and address or affiliation; try to nominate from different
geographical areas. Also, be sure the woman you nominate is willing to serve.
1.
2.
II.
Suggestions for 1985 WIG sessions. Indicate whether you are willing to organize a
session on the topic(s) you propose, and at which conference.
A.
B.
C.
D.
AATG 1985
(New York)
1.
(Pedagogy)
2.
(Literature)
MLA 1985
(Chicago)
1.
2.
WIG conference (probably in Portland, Oregon in 1985; guest(s) not yet decided).
1.
3.
2.
4.
Suggested guests (authors, other artists, or scholars) for future WIG conferences
(Please include brief bio and list of major works).
2.
1.
III.
IV.
WIG projects
A.
Amount of time you would be able to work on a WIG project during 1984-8):
B.
Project(s) you would most like to work on (indicate what you could do):
1.
Textbook reviewing
2.
Translation
1.
WIG Yearbook (editing, refereeing of papers, typing, etc.)
4.
Bibliography, book reviews, journal reviews, etc. (be specific).
5.
Other:
(use back of page for additional comments)
Herzensergiessungen.
Mail to:
What do you like most/least about WIG?
Barbara D. Wright, U-137, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
06268.
I
-16-
SU~SCRIPTI0NS/MEMBERSHIP
This is Newsletter 34. Read your label and
renew when numbers match.
Weisefrau, Uta
34
Feminist University
Utopia, USA
Renew now, today, before you forget--sending out reminders is time-consuming
and expensive, not to mention boring.
A new dues structure was approved at the October 1983 WiG conference.
By
increasing the rates for those earning higher salaries, we hope to be able to
finance more projects, while still keeping rates low for students, the unemployed, and the underemployed.
Please fill out the section below, detach and return with your payment in
U.S. dollars (check or money order made out to Women in German).
Subscribers
outside North America:
Please increase the amount in your category by onethird to help defray the cost of postage. Send membership form and payment
to: WOMEN IN GERMAN, Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages, Indiana U.-Purdue U.,
Fort Wayne, IN 46805.
- - - - - -
- - -
-
- - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - -
-
New
Category
A
student, unemployed
$ 3.00 for one year
$ 5.00 for two years
B
annual sa 1 a ry $10,000
to $15,000
$ 7.00 for one year
$12.00 for two years
C
annual salary $15,001
to $20,000
$10.00 for one year
$15.00 for two years
0
annual salary $20,001
to $25,000
$13 .00 for one year
$20.00 for two years
E
annual salary $25,001
and up
$16.00 for one year
$25.00 for two years
F
supporting individuals,
libraries
$20.00 for one year
$35.00 for two years
G
supporting departments
$25.00 per year
Renewing
Please fill in address exactly as you wish it to appear on mailing label.
than lour I ines!
Please type or print clearly.
mOrt'
Name
Address
CIIECK iF APPLICABLE:
change of address
No
-
- -
."'
("".,.;....--
WOMEN IN GERMAN
Modern Foreign languages
Indiana University - Purdue University
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
C
01
N S
F S
~
U
E E
N
C
E
REGISTRATION MATERIALS-OPEN AT ONCE!