The Virginal Mother in German Culture: From Sophie von La Roche and Goethe to Metropolis by Lauren Nossett (review)

The name Goethe alone in the subtitle of a book can make the heart of a Goethe lover beat faster. However, the main title of Lauren Nossett's book makes it clear that the subject is female, more precisely "the virginal mother," which is, indeed, an enticing topic for many literary scholars. In her introduction, the author states that the subject of her analysis "is an ideal of youth, virtue, and self-sacrifice."

The book covers the emergence of the idea of the virginal mother from the eighteenth century to modernity, following a brief introduction to the time period before it. It immediately becomes apparent that the amount of research provided in her treatment of these topics is vast; as the author acknowledges, the book is enriched by the inclusion of scholarship from experts in a variety of fields, making this book an even more useful tool. However, the conclusions provided at the end of every chapter ensure that the book is a relatively easy read.

Chapter five, in my opinion, is particular interesting. This chapter uses the film Metropolis, its depiction of powerful women, their societal roles, and the problems of motherhood as its bases for analysis. Here Nossett concludes that "the virginal Maria [a robot in the film] illustrates the potential for women to initiate positive social change and exemplifies the contemporary stance of the German women's movement." Chapter two is also significant because of its broad analysis spread across three of Goethe's works: The Sorrows of Young Werther, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, and Faust I. After reading this chapter, one gets the feeling that the mother in the Goethe's works has been the subject of thousands of pages of research, which is, indeed, correct. A student or young scholar, however, wishing to dig deeper into the topic, is offered a wealth of information in this volume, which will undoubtedly be useful for further research. Furthermore, the author's distinctive argument that "Goethe's works show the virginal mother from a different perspective: that of the male lover," certainly makes chapter 2 worth reading.

My choice to highlight just two chapters does not mean that the others are of less interest or that other readers with different interests might not choose to focus on other chapters. For example, I also found the author's assessment of the topic during the Third Reich to be very interesting. In this period, according to Nossett's research, the ideal of the virginal mother disappears in favor of the biological mother. She follows this discussion with a brief look back at the topic in postwar Germany up to the 1970s.

However, the sheer amount of research and analysis included in this book is also, occasionally, a drawback. Other than in the helpful conclusions at the end of every chapter, Nossett often provides so much information that the reader may sometimes feel that her point is lost. Nevertheless, the book is an interesting read and offers readers different angles and different perspectives on literature and other media. This book is particularly recommended for scholars of gender studies, women's studies, literature, philosophy, and film studies. A follow-up work based on this book could offer more in-depth analyses of the individual chapters.