Free Soul, Free Woman?: A Study of Selected Fictional Works by Hedwig Dohm, Isolde Kurz, and Helene Boehlau

In their lifetime, Hedwig Dohm (1831-1919) and Helene Boehlau (1856-1940) earned the praise of women’s rights activists such as Minna Cauer and Helene Stoecker for their contributions to modern women’s literature. Dohm engaged in debates on the women’s movement with Lou Andreas-Salome, Ellen Key, and Laura Marholm. Boehlau shocked the reading public with her novel Halbtier’, in which a woman triumphs after killing an abusive man. On the other hand, Isolde Kurz (1853-1944), who distanced herself from the women’s movement, seems the odd woman out. Yet boundaries among these writers are more fluid than expected, especially in their portrayals of sexuality and spirituality.