Author: Andree Michaelis-König, Axel Springer-Lehrstuhl für deutsch-jüdische Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte, Europa-Universität Viadrina (European University Viadrina) - Author's Personal Website, ORCID

Abstract: »Louise Aston’s work during the 1840s is usually read within the context of the author’s life and biography. This paper differs from this reading. Instead, I explore the extent to which a reading fixated on the author’s life runs the risk of overlooking the perspective of behaviours and gender roles that Aston portrayed in her fictional worlds. Using Aston’s poem cycle Wilde Rosen (1846), her 1846 pamphlet Meine Emancipation, Verweisung und Rechtfertigung and the three novels Aus dem Leben einer Frau (1847), Lydia (1848) and Revolution und Contrerevolution (1850), I analyse some of the central motifs of her work. Furthermore, I examine Aston’s analysis of socioeconomic violence against women and the intersectional perspective in the context of the situation of the proletarian workers of her time. Finally, my focus lies on Aston’s gender practices, as can be seen particularly in her character Alice von Rosen. It is precisely Aston’s intersectional connection between gender, and sexual and socio-economic violence that make her literary works so intriguing up to this day.« (Source: German Life and Letters)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 1)
	Lektürewege zu einer geöffenteten Perspektive auf das vom Ruf der Autorin verdeckte literarische Werk (p. 5)
	Aus dem Leben einer Frau: Louise Astons literarische Provokationen und ihre Position im literarischen Feld ihrer Zeit (p. 11)
	Strukturelle Gewalterfahrung von Frauen und Arbeiter*Innen auf dem Wege zur Revolution (p. 14)
	Revolution und Contrerevolution: Der grosse Zusammenhang. Ein Fazit (p. 19)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Germany | Literature: German literature / Louise Aston | Sex and the law: Rape / History of rape