Spröde Individualitäten. Zu [Friederike Helene Ungers] Bekenntnissen einer schönen Seele

In her article, Christa Bürger interprets the subtitle of Friederike Helene Ungers novel as a protest against the appropriation of a woman’s history, which reduced her life to an embodiment of an ideal of resignation. “The confession, written by herself” takes on the role of a manifesto; it evokes a vision of female alliance, i.e., of a life that is self-determined and situated far from the predominating gender arrangements, and of a language that, through art, is capable of creating a vision of love beyond desire. The article is related to a project of critical literary studies, developed in cooperation with Peter Bürger since the 1970s, examining the displaced tradition of women’s writing.