In the Shadow of Olympus

This anthology represents the first sustained feminist examination of eighteenth-and nineteenth-century German women writers in English. These essays highlight the literature produced by German women in the period 1790-1810, framing the discussions with a comparative orientation. The book analyzes in culturally specific detail how these authors came to constitute the first generation of writing women in Germany at a time when Goethe set the standard for literary production. Each essay focuses on the ambivalence of the author(s) toward literary and social models. The authors treated include Rahel Varnhagen, Charlotte von Stein, Friederike Helene Unger, Bettine von Arnim, Caroline Schlegel-Schelling, Sophie Albrecht, Therese Huber, Sophie Mereau, Sophie von La Roche, Henriette Frolich, and Benedikte Naubert.