Publisher's Synopsis
What is a woman author? The early 20th century saw the emergence of a new concept, Frauendichtung (womens writing), a mode of discourse that fundamentally reframed the question of femaleand thus also, by contrast, of maleauthorship. The paradigm of womens writing as it emerged on the threshold to modernity, when it was associated with a kind of timeless knowledge, has been at best cursorily treated in extant scholarship. It is at the focus of the present study, which traces its astonishing longevityif only at the level of implicit knowledgeup until the present day. The book concludes with an analysis of current debates on gender, authorship, and canonicity. Methodologically, it draws on techniques of discourse and myth analysis, paratext theory, and praxeology.
