Liebeslyrik und Biedermeierprosa: Bürgerliche Familienkonzepte bei Betty Paoli (1814–1894)

This article deals with different representations of bourgeois family concepts in the work of the Austrian writer Betty Paoli (pseudonym of Elisabeth Glück, 1814–1894). In her poetry Paoli follows a late Romantic individualism and anticipates the cult of the genius as well as Weltschmerz poetry, which allows her to create a passionate and occasionally exuberant female lyrical “I,” a voice rarely heard in the love poetry of the time. Although Paoli stresses individual freedom and autonomy in her poems and therefore challenges the female gender role and hierarchic relationships, her prose is characterized by an affirmative account of bourgeois family concepts and emphasizes the significance of the prevalent family narrative. An analysis of some of Paoli’s early poetry, two novellas, and her only novel demonstrates the significance of literature in the construction and undermining of the socio-historical concept of bourgeois family, a vital part of the self-image of the nineteenth-century middle class.