Murderesses in German Writing, 1720-1860: Heroines of Horror

by Susanne Kord

Overview

The way deviant women - murderesses, witches, vampires - are perceived and represented reveals much about what a society considers the norm for acceptable female behaviour. Drawing on extensive archival records and published texts, Susanne Kord investigates the stories of eight famous murderesses in Germany as they were told in legal, psychological, philosophical and literary writings. Kord interrogates the role of representation in legal judgment and the way the emancipation of women was perceived to be linked to their crimes. She demonstrates how perceptions of normal and criminal women permeated not only legal thought but also seemingly unrelated cultural spheres - from poetry, philosophy and physiognomy to early psychological profiling. A major work of German cultural history, this highly original book raises thought-provoking questions about eighteenth- and nineteenth-century gender norms in ways that continue to resonate today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521519779
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/14/2009
Series:	Cambridge Studies in German
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Susanne Kord is Professor of German at University College London.

Table of Contents

1. Criminal women: on bodies, paradoxes, performances and tales; 2. The evil eye: witches; 3. The plague: vampires; 4. Pride: husband-killers; 5. Shame: child-killers; 6. The female self: poisoners; 7. The end: the etiquette of execution; Works cited; Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Summations have the somewhat artificial tendency to round off a book (and an analysis) that was charged to describe something multi-faceted. Susanne Kord has thus quite rightly chosen the form of the analytical essay. […] Eschewing generalizations and broad strokes, practicing the ‘non-unity of history’ (Hausen), Susanne Kord offers concise, thoughtful, and—in her treatment of scholarship—exceptionally masterful and stimulating insights into ideas about female deviance at the threshold of modernity. Her book inspires further discussion about the question to what extent modern penal systems can be understood as expressions of humaneness or rather […] as internalizations of social, moral and gender-constituting codes that should be resisted to this day."

-Dr Achim Saupe, Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam

"This smart and original book uses readings of many different kinds of texts to shed light on conceptions of gender in the German transition to modernity...Kord's vivid writing style enhances the book's appeal...This book is a notable exploration of the revealing underside of modern European culture."
-Joy Wiltenburg, H-German

Editorial Reviews

"Summations have the somewhat artificial tendency to round off a book (and an analysis) that was charged to describe something multi-faceted. Susanne Kord has thus quite rightly chosen the form of the analytical essay. […] Eschewing generalizations and broad strokes, practicing the ‘non-unity of history’ (Hausen), Susanne Kord offers concise, thoughtful, and—in her treatment of scholarship—exceptionally masterful and stimulating insights into ideas about female deviance at the threshold of modernity. Her book inspires further discussion about the question to what extent modern penal systems can be understood as expressions of humaneness or rather […] as internalizations of social, moral and gender-constituting codes that should be resisted to this day."

-Dr Achim Saupe, Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam

"This smart and original book uses readings of many different kinds of texts to shed light on conceptions of gender in the German transition to modernity...Kord's vivid writing style enhances the book's appeal...This book is a notable exploration of the revealing underside of modern European culture."
-Joy Wiltenburg, H-German

From the Publisher