Engaged Fiction(s)? New Perspectives on the Women’s Novel around 1800

Abstract

Maya Gerig has published a study on the women’s novel around 1800 that—different from prior examinations—turns its focus to the texts’ political and legal referents. Gerig’s study, appearing in the series Literature—Culture—Gender (Literatur—Kultur—Geschlecht) edited by Inge Stephan and Sigrid Weigel, sets up correlations between literary texts and the philosophical, pedagogical, and legal discourses of the time between 1771 and 1829 based on 22 select representative novels and stories divided into three central thematic interests. She therefore presents a clear and well-structured primary work. Her conclusions that the women’s novel should be seen as a form of sociopolitical engagement is upon further consideration, however, not solid.