The Complexities of Caroline Pichler: Conflicting Role Models, Patriotic Commitment, and The Swedes in Prague (1827)

The active commitment to Austrian nationalism by the novelist Caroline Pichler contrasts strikingly with her declared view that women should avoid politics and remain in the domestic sphere. Drawing on her memoirs, this article argues that this contradiction results from her ambivalence toward two female role models: her mother and the Empress Maria Theresia, known as "Mother of Her Peoples." This ambivalence also underlies the portrayal of women engaged in a national cause in Pichler's novel The Swedes in Prague (Die Schweden in Prag, 1827). (RR)