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Haines, Brigid & Littler, Margaret. Contemporary Women's Writing in German: Changing the Subject. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford Studies in Modern European Culture), 2004. viii + 160 pp. £40. ISBN 0–19–815967–6, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 43, Issue 3, JULY 2007, Page 321, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqm027
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This volume offers readings of prose narratives (both novels and story cycles) published between 1972 and 1990, by six writers: Ingeborg Bachmann (Simultan), Elfried Jelinek (Die Liebhaberinnen), Anne Duden (“Übergang”), Christa Wolf (Kassandra), Herta Müller (Reisende auf einem Bein), and Emine Sevgi Özdamar (“Mutter Zunge” and “Groβvater Zunge”). The works all centre on women's experience, frequently in relation to (post-Holocaust) trauma, violence and unstable subjectivity. The role of language in subject formation is a core aspect, as is the recurrent problem of women's complicity in their oppression. The readings are informed by critical theories applied flexibly, in a clearly signposted way; each of the challenging texts is opened up by a combination of approaches. More recent shifts in feminist theory are reflected, with psychoanalysis complemented by theories of performativity and embodiment, and by what the authors refer to as “new materialism” aimed at overcoming mind/body dualism. This intellectually rigorous, clearly formulated study has a substantial introduction which sets discussion and texts in theoretical and historical context, supplying summaries of the chapters to come. There is an informative glossary of theoretical terms and an annotated bibliography of further reading. This is a user-friendly volume, for students and scholars alike.