Gender and Self-Optimization in Irmgard Keunâs Gilgi, eine von uns and Das kunstseidene MÃ¤dchen

Brangwen Stone

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Chapter 12 Gender and Self-Optimization in Irmgard Keunâs Gilgi, eine von uns and Das kunstseidene MÃ¤dchen

In: Self-Optimization in Modernist Culture

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Brangwen Stone

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 256â274

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004720701_014

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on Irmgard Keunâs novels Gilgi, eine von uns (1931) and Das kunstseidene MÃ¤dchen (1931). The central protagonists, Gilgi and Doris, who are ambitious unmarried young office workers at the outset of the respective novels, have been described as the quintessential Neue Frau (New Woman) of Weimar Germany. However, though the female white-collar worker was often seen as being synonymous with the Neue Frauâespecially as constructed in films, newspapers, magazines and advertisements of the timeâneither protagonist retains the female economic independence and sexual emancipation central to this fantasy. This chapter explores Gilgi and Dorisâ troubled quest for self-optimization in the context of the Weimar-era media construct of the New Woman, analyzing the complementary paths open to women in this era which the two heroines reflect.

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Self-Optimization in Modernist Culture

Series:Â Literary Modernism, Volume: 9

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004720701

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 03 Jun 2025

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

Front Matter

Part 1 The Self

Part 2 Emotions and Nerves

Part 3 Body and Gender

Part 4 The Technology of Self-Optimization

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Chapter 12 Gender and Self-Optimization in Irmgard Keunâs Gilgi, eine von uns and Das kunstseidene MÃ¤dchen

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Self-Optimization in Modernist Culture

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Chapter 12 Gender and Self-Optimization in Irmgard Keunâs Gilgi, eine von uns and Das kunstseidene MÃ¤dchen