Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 “Schwimme mit mir hinüber zu den Hütten unserer Nachbarn”: Colonial Islands in Sophie von La Roche's Erscheinungen am See Oneida (1798) and Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie (1788)
- 2 “Hier oder nirgends ist Amerika!”: America and the Idea of Autonomy in Sophie Mereau's “Elise” (1800)
- 3 A “Swiss Amazon” in the New World: Images of America in the Lebensbeschreibung of Regula Engel (1821)
- 4 Amalia Schoppe's Die Auswanderer nach Brasilien oder die Hütte am Gigitonhonha (1828)
- 5 Inscribed in the Body: Ida Pfeiffer's Reise in die neue Welt (1856)
- 6 Mathilde Franziska Anneke's Anti-Slavery Novella Uhland in Texas (1866)
- 7 “Ich bin ein Pioneer”: Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz's Die Lieder der Mormonin (1887) and the Erotic Exploration of Exotic America
- 8 Seductive and Destructive: Argentina in Gabriele Reuter's Kolonistenvolk (1889)
- 9 Inventing America: German Racism and Colonial Dreams in Sophie Wörishöffer's Im Goldlande Kalifornien (1891)
- 10 Aus vergangenen Tagen: Eine Erzählung aus der Sklavenzeit (1906): Clara Berens's German American “Race Melodrama” in Its American Literary Contexts
- 11 “Der verfluchte Yankee!” Gabriele Reuter's Episode Hopkins (1889) and Der Amerikaner (1907)
- 12 Reframing the Poetics of the Aztec Empire: Gertrud Kolmar's “Die Aztekin” (1920)
- 13 Synthesis, Gender, and Race in Alice Salomon's Kultur im Werden (1924)
- 14 Land of Fantasy, Land of Fiction: Klara May's Mit Karl May durch Amerika (1931)
- 15 An Ideological Framing of Annemarie Schwarzenbach's Racialized Gaze: Writing and Shooting for the USA-Reportagen (1936–38)
- 16 “Fighting against Manitou”: German Identity and Ilse Schreiber' Canada Novels Die Schwestern aus Memel (1936) and Die Flucht in aradies (1939)
- 17 Mexico as a Model for How to Live in the Times of History: Anna Seghers's Crisanta (1951)
- 18 East Germany's Imaginary Indians: Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich's Harka Cycle (1951–63) and Its DEFA Adaptation Die Söhne der Großen Bärin (1966)
- 19 Finding Identity through Traveling the New World: Angela Krauß's Die Überfliegerin (1995) and Milliarden neuer Sterne (1999)
- 20 Discovery or Invention: Newfoundland in Gabrielle Alioth's Die Erfindung von Liebe und Tod (2003)
- 21 Tzveta Sofronieva's “Über das Glück nach der Lektüre von Schopenhauer, in Kalifornien” (2007)
- 22 “Amerika ist alles und das Gegenteil von allem. Amerika ist anders.” Milena Moser's Travel Guide to San Francisco (2008)
- Bibliography: The New World in German-Language Literature by Women
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
22 - “Amerika ist alles und das Gegenteil von allem. Amerika ist anders.” Milena Moser's Travel Guide to San Francisco (2008)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 “Schwimme mit mir hinüber zu den Hütten unserer Nachbarn”: Colonial Islands in Sophie von La Roche's Erscheinungen am See Oneida (1798) and Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie (1788)
- 2 “Hier oder nirgends ist Amerika!”: America and the Idea of Autonomy in Sophie Mereau's “Elise” (1800)
- 3 A “Swiss Amazon” in the New World: Images of America in the Lebensbeschreibung of Regula Engel (1821)
- 4 Amalia Schoppe's Die Auswanderer nach Brasilien oder die Hütte am Gigitonhonha (1828)
- 5 Inscribed in the Body: Ida Pfeiffer's Reise in die neue Welt (1856)
- 6 Mathilde Franziska Anneke's Anti-Slavery Novella Uhland in Texas (1866)
- 7 “Ich bin ein Pioneer”: Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz's Die Lieder der Mormonin (1887) and the Erotic Exploration of Exotic America
- 8 Seductive and Destructive: Argentina in Gabriele Reuter's Kolonistenvolk (1889)
- 9 Inventing America: German Racism and Colonial Dreams in Sophie Wörishöffer's Im Goldlande Kalifornien (1891)
- 10 Aus vergangenen Tagen: Eine Erzählung aus der Sklavenzeit (1906): Clara Berens's German American “Race Melodrama” in Its American Literary Contexts
- 11 “Der verfluchte Yankee!” Gabriele Reuter's Episode Hopkins (1889) and Der Amerikaner (1907)
- 12 Reframing the Poetics of the Aztec Empire: Gertrud Kolmar's “Die Aztekin” (1920)
- 13 Synthesis, Gender, and Race in Alice Salomon's Kultur im Werden (1924)
- 14 Land of Fantasy, Land of Fiction: Klara May's Mit Karl May durch Amerika (1931)
- 15 An Ideological Framing of Annemarie Schwarzenbach's Racialized Gaze: Writing and Shooting for the USA-Reportagen (1936–38)
- 16 “Fighting against Manitou”: German Identity and Ilse Schreiber' Canada Novels Die Schwestern aus Memel (1936) and Die Flucht in aradies (1939)
- 17 Mexico as a Model for How to Live in the Times of History: Anna Seghers's Crisanta (1951)
- 18 East Germany's Imaginary Indians: Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich's Harka Cycle (1951–63) and Its DEFA Adaptation Die Söhne der Großen Bärin (1966)
- 19 Finding Identity through Traveling the New World: Angela Krauß's Die Überfliegerin (1995) and Milliarden neuer Sterne (1999)
- 20 Discovery or Invention: Newfoundland in Gabrielle Alioth's Die Erfindung von Liebe und Tod (2003)
- 21 Tzveta Sofronieva's “Über das Glück nach der Lektüre von Schopenhauer, in Kalifornien” (2007)
- 22 “Amerika ist alles und das Gegenteil von allem. Amerika ist anders.” Milena Moser's Travel Guide to San Francisco (2008)
- Bibliography: The New World in German-Language Literature by Women
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (New Zurich newspaper), Switzerland's most prestigious German-language daily, labeled Milena Moser the “literary mother of desperate Swiss housewives.” Moser's novels address the daily lives of Swiss women, stuck between self-inflicted expectations, perfectionism, and conformism, and offer their readers “creative lines of escape.” In 1998, Moser and her family emigrated to San Francisco, where she attempted to find a new home for her family and her protagonists. The result was mixed: after eight years Moser reluctantly returned to conservative Switzerland, having been unable to secure a green card and permanent status in the United States through her writing. Moser also faced artistic challenges: writing about the tribulations of Swiss women turned out to be more difficult while living in the freewheeling atmosphere of San Francisco.
In 2008, Moser released the travel guide Flowers in Your Hair: Wie man in San Francisco glücklich wird (Flowers in Your Hair: How to Achieve Happiness in San Francisco). The book is part travel guide to San Francisco, part memoir, part love letter, and part farewell to the city Moser loves. As she did in earlier writings, Moser irreverently turns genre conventions upside down. In this book, she mixes the autobiographical with travel tips about hotels, restaurants, and sights, and guides her readers to a city and country viewed through her idiosyncratic lens. The heterogeneity of the genres used in Flowers deliberately seems to represent the heterogeneity of Moser's experiences.
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- Sophie Discovers AmerikaGerman-Speaking Women Write the New World, pp. 275 - 286Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014