Geschlechtersemantik 1800-1900

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Natalia Igl examines the historical and semantic shift of the complementary gender model and its crisis around 1800 and 1900, focusing on Naturalism as a key phase in the literary discourse of modern gender issues. Unlike previous research that centers on Fin de Siècle literature, Igl highlights Naturalism's role in addressing the crisis of traditional gender roles. The study particularly analyzes the lesser-known naturalistic and naturalism-adjacent dramas of Elsa Bernstein (1866-1949). Through detailed text analyses, Igl argues that Naturalism holds greater significance in understanding the gender crisis of the early 20th century and the broader literary anthropology discourse than previously acknowledged. By linking naturalist aesthetics with the conflicts surrounding gender roles in Bernstein's works, the study presents these texts as a lens to explore the evolving semantics of gender within the Naturalist framework. Ultimately, Igl asserts that the Naturalist era is a crucial yet often overlooked period in literary modernism, significantly contributing to the discourse on 19th-century literary anthropology.