Hedwig Dohm by Gaby Pailer (review)

My reading of this short biography of Hedwig Dohm (1831-1919) initially produced some confusion, because I wondered who the intended readership is for such a study: as someone who has spent a long time reading, writing, and teaching about Dohm, I found that much of Gaby Pailer's monograph contained familiar material, at least for me. I learned things, most certainly, and was delighted to be back in Dohm's company for a while. Eventually, I went online to read Wehrhahn Verlag's description of its series Meteore. There are useful words and phrases here: "Biographien," "der aktuelle wissenschaftliche Kenntnisstand," "solide Orientierung," and, helping to answer my question of readership, "Lehrende sowie die interessierte Öffentlichkeit." And there is also that vital temporal element: the series is named for Goethe's description of Lenz as "vorübergehendes Meteor": writers who were known for a time but did not remain in the public eye. It would be useful to offer this description at the beginning of each of these volumes.

Like most traditional biographies, this one works chronologically in relating Dohm's life story. But it also works generically, offering wide-ranging evidence of Dohm's eclectic approach to her writing and supplying some useful and less well-known insights into genres she practised that have been less documented, in particular her comedies, her rare poetry, and her fascinating history of Spanish literature. The brief preface stresses Dohm's location within a broad range of genres against the background of developments in German literature during her long life. The volume focuses almost entirely on her professional rather than her personal life; only the first chapter, "Anfänge," devotes itself largely to an account of Dohm's early life, but even here there is discussion of her Spanish literary history and mention of her fairy tales and poetry. This chapter has a chatty tone that almost borders on gossip, especially in Pailer's account of Alfred Schirokauer's biographical novel Lassalle, with attention paid to its account of the Dohms, Hedwig and Ernst, and their relationship to Ferdinand Lassalle. The section is accompanied by a photograph of Lassalle, granting him a stature in such a brief account of Dohm's life that seems exaggerated, given that all the other illustrations are (except for a facsimile of a letter she wrote to the theatre director Max Martersteig) portraits either of Hedwig Dohm or, in one case, of her husband, Ernst.

The primary focus concerns Dohm's writings, with the largest sections devoted to her novellas and novels. Particularly welcome is the wide range of selections: the often discussed novella "Werde, die Du bist" and the frequently analysed novel trilogy are supplemented, for example, by a discussion of Dohm's first novel Plein Air (1891). Pailer is correct in claiming that this novel has received virtually no scholarly attention, and thus her relatively extended discussion is welcome. I regret that she did not pursue Pia, an auxiliary character who, however, carries enormous weight precisely because she is not typical, not heroic, like the more proper female protagonist Lis, who, despite her unhappiness with her role, nevertheless fulfils her expected duties and marries. Pia, on the other hand, lives in an entirely female world; is, in fact, labelled a witch and a "Männermörderin"; is overtly sexual; and caught my attention more than the heroine (and therefore earned a spot in a piece of mine concerning the power of those I labelled "Die Nebensächlichen"). Given the modernity that marks her appearance, she should be granted more attention. In the volume as a whole, in fact, Pailer places a general emphasis on Dohm's modernity, seeing her as a "moderne Dichterin, die eine für ihre Zeit ungewöhnliche feministische Literaturproduktion und Kulturkritik betreibt" (7). She also specifically defines Dohm's novel trilogy as a depiction of "die 'andere Moderne' der Frau und ihre entsprechend anders gearteten Krisen" (94). Pia's appearance contributes a vivid example.

Pailer's inclusion...