Editor’s Note, p. v
ARTICLES
Ruth Dawson with Waltraud Maierhofer
German Rediscovery of Life Writing: Introduction to Essays on German-Speaking Women as Rulers, Consorts, and Royal Mistresses in the Long Eighteenth Century, p. 483
This introduction to the analysis of the construction of aristocratic life writing by and about German women during the long eighteenth century explores the ongoing reevaluation of autobiography and biography by historians, Germanists, and other scholars in the humanities and social scientists.
Helke Dreier
Memoirs as Dynastic Means of Legitimization: Duchess Sophie of Hannover, p. 495
The memoirs of Duchess Sophie of Hannover exemplify female life writing in the seventeenth century. By no means merely a collection of anecdotes, her self-narrative is used by the duchess to foster the glory and reputation of the Dynasty of the Welfen, and to secure her place and role within that dynasty.
Ruth Dawson
Perilous Royal Biography: Representations of Catherine II Immediately after Her Seizure of the Throne, p. 517
When Tsar Peter III of Russia was deposed by his wife in 1762, a flurry of biographical texts appeared about both the hapless Peter and the new Tsarina, Catherine II. From the first newspaper accounts to official manifestos and unofficial biographical pamphlets, these texts illustrate the interplay among factors of gender, sexuality, dynasty, and legitimacy.
Corinna Heipcke
Landgräfin Karoline of Hessen-Darmstadt: Epistolary Politics and the Problems of Consort Biography, p. 535
Karoline of Hessen-Darmstadt exemplifies the problems in writing the biography of a royal or high aristocratic consort in eighteenth-century Germany. Such a biography can only succeed if it deploys feminist historiography; takes seriously the correspondence of the consort as a historiographical source, and also takes seriously marriage politics as an important aspect of foreign politics.
Helga Meise
Posthumous Fame and Writing of the Self by the “Great” Landgräfin Karoline of Hessen-Darmstadt, p. 554
This article deals with the contradictions imposed on Landgräfin Karoline of Hessen-Darmstadt, as the “Great Landgräfin” was torn between two completely different aims: to save her dynasty by means of her marriage politics; or to proceed in self-enlightenment by writing and reading, especially the philosophers of her time.
Waltraud Maierhofer
Wilhelmine Encke-Ritz-Lichtenau: Writing and Reading the Life of a Prussian Royal Mistress, p. 575
The life of Wilhelmine Encke, better known as Countess Lichtenau or “the German Pompadour,” has been narrated extensively from her own best years into the twenty-first century. This article traces these life writings, and investigates how the issue of the legitimacy of female power in the realms of politics intertwined with discourses on gender roles and historical memory.
REVIEWS
Mapping Lives: The Uses of Biography, edited by Peter France and William St. Clair, p. 597
Reviewed by Kenneth Silverman
Writing Biography: Historians and Their Craft, edited by Lloyd E. Ambrosius, p. 599
Reviewed by Catherine N. Parke
The Philosopher’s Autobiography: A Qualitative Study, by Shlomit C. Schuster, p. 603
Reviewed by Richard Morehouse
The Anonymous Marie de France, by R. Howard Bloch, p. 605
Reviewed by Judith Kellogg
Roles of Authority: Thespian Biography and Celebrity in Eighteenth-Century Britain, by Cheryl Wanko, p. 609
Reviewed by Shearer West
A Biographer at Work: Samuel Johnson’s Notes for the ‘Life of Pope,’ by Harriet Kirkley, p. 611
Reviewed by Norma Clarke
From Life: The Story of Julia Margaret Cameron and Victorian Photography, by Victoria Olsen, p. 614
Reviewed by Jennifer Green-Lewis
Recovering Ruth: A Biographer’s Tale, by Robert Root, p. 617
Reviewed by Susan Friedman
The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing: Annie Ray’s Diary, by Jennifer Sinor, p. 620
Reviewed by Lisa M. Logan
No Sword to Bury: Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i during World War II, by Franklin Odo, p. 623
Reviewed by Jonathan Dresner
Extreme Virtue: Truth and Leadership in Five Great American Lives, by Crispin Sartwell, p. 626
Reviewed by Barry Allen
Geographical Voices: Fourteen Autobiographical Essays, edited by Peter Gould and Forrest R. Pitts, p. 628
Reviewed by Pamela Moss
Aged by Culture, by Margaret Morganroth Gullette, p. 631
Reviewed by Katie E. Cherry, Nowal Jamhour, and Payton B. Mincey
The Life Writing of Otherness: Woolf, Baldwin, Kingston, and Winterson, by Lauren Rusk, 635
Reviewed by Jeanette McVicker
Zarathustra’s Sisters: Women’s Autobiography and the Shaping of Cultural History, by Susan Ingram, p. 638
Reviewed by Ursula Tidd
They Dream Not of Angels but of Men: Homoeroticism, Gender, and Race in Latin American Autobiography, by Robert Richmond Ellis, p. 640
Reviewed by Claudia Schaefer
Poétique: revue de théorie et d’analyse littéraires, edited by Michel Charles, p. 643
Reviewed by Alison Rice
Un Journal à soi: Histoire d’une pratique, by Philippe Lejeune and Catherine Bogaert, p. 645
Reviewed by Marie-Christine Garneau
Experience and Expression: Women, the Nazis, and the Holocaust, edited by Elizabeth R. Baer and Myrna Goldenberg, p. 649
Reviewed by Karin Doerr
Committed to Memory: Cultural Mediations on the Holocaust, by Oren Baruch Stier, p. 654
Reviewed by Jay Geller
Image and Remembrance: Representation and the Holocaust, edited by Shelley Hornstein and Florence Jacobowitz, p. 657
Reviewed by Elizabeth R. Baer
Poetry After Auschwitz: Remembering What One Never Knew, by Susan Gubar, p. 660
Reviewed by Michael Rothberg
Trauma at Home: After 9/11, edited by Judith Greenberg, p. 663
Reviewed by Geoffrey Cocks
Women Writing Africa. Vol. 1: The Southern Region, edited by M. J. Daymond, Dorothy Driver, Sheila Meintjes, Leloba Molema, Chiedza Musengezi, Margie Orford, and Nobantu Rasebotsa, p. 665
Reviewed by Kay Schaffer
Dwelling in the Archive: Women Writing House, Home, and History in Late Colonial India, by Antoinette Burton, p. 673
Reviewed by Vinay Lal
Reply to a review of Holy Boldness: Women Preachers’ Autobiographies and the Sanctified Self, by Susie C. Stanley, p. 676
Response by Lynn Domina, p. 678
LIFELINES, p. 680
Upcoming events, calls for papers, and news from the field
CONTRIBUTORS, p. 684
