Dokument und Fiktion: Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumers Der weibliche Name des Widerstands

This essay introduces Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer's Der weibliche Name des Widerstands to American audiences. Thematically this collection of portraits of women who died in the Holocaust is discussed as a contribution to the literature of women's antifascist resistance; at the same time the article examines the poetics of the work as distinct from documentary prose. With reference to Kerschbaumer's linguistic studies as well as her feminist and political intentions, the article develops a specific semiotic of the female. (SL)