| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 322 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Introduction : moral missionaries and hysterical hermaphrodites : feminist and anti-feminist perspectives in Vienna around 1900 -- 1. The first wave -- 2. Personal politics : the General Austrian Women's Association -- 3. Practical politics : the activities of the General Austrian Women 's Association -- 4. Equal but different : the League of Austrian Women's Associations -- 5. The feminist fringe -- 6. Coda : 1914-18 -- 7. Autonomous feminism and feminist theory -- 8. A champion of reason : Irma von Troll-Borostyani -- 9. The synthetic ideal : Rosa Mayreder -- 10. Eugenics and feminism : Grete Meisel-Hess -- 11. Political feminism and spiritual feminism -- 12. Feminist aesthetics and imaginative literature -- 13. Moral feminism -- 14. Psychological feminism -- 15. The visionary imagination -- Conclusion : the legacy of visonary feminism |
| Summary |
"The Viennese women's movement at the turn of the century made valuable and original contributions to social reform, feminist ideology, and artistic and intellectual trends of the era. This book--the first to examine this movement in depth--discusses its historical development, the activities, personalities, and writings of its middle-class members, and the Viennese culture and politics in which it flourished. Harriet Anderson argues that the movement was not primarily focused on women's rights but was a utopian endeavor that sought to bring about the moral reform of society through women's efforts. She discusses the numerous women's associations that sprang up at the turn of the century, groups that focused on women's education, legal reform, state-controlled prostitution, and anti-Semitism, among other issues. Examining the General Austrian Women's Association in particular, Anderson reconstructs its history and describes the ideals that informed it, the personal loves and animosities of its leading figures, and the conflicts in which it engaged up to its decline in the chaos of the First World War. She next critically analyzes the feminists' theoretical writings, placing them in their intellectual contexts, investigating their poetics, and showing how they were shaped by various utopian visions. Finally she discusses the women's fictional works, identifying two main groups of feminist writers, one that wrote mainly moral texts supporting the prevalent middle-class code of conduct, and the other that sought to investigate psychological mechanisms and expose deep-rooted oppression."-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 282-306) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Feminism -- Austria -- Vienna -- History
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Feminist theory.
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Utopias.
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Utopias
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HISTORY / General
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Feminism
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Feminist theory
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Utopias
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Vrouwenbeweging.
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Feminisme.
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Utopieën.
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Austria
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Austria -- Vienna
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| Genre/Form |
History
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Utopian fiction.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
92005739 |
| ISBN |
9780300241495 |
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0300241496 |
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