I was rummaging through my files this morning and found a handout from a women's studies class I took when I was a student at BYU. At the time, BYU's German Department had just begun working on Sophie: A Digital Library and Resource Center for Early German-Speaking Women's Works 1740-1923 and the handout is an explanation of the project and an example of the content that includes a profile and quote, which I share with you now, from one of the women in the database.
It is true that life is miserable enough, and that the majority of people never amount to much! But when I hear a young, gifted man say, 'I have never felt enthusiasm for human innovations, for so-called progress, because the herd always remains just as wretched, no matter how high the heel one gives them'--I always want to say: but for once look away from the majority, toward the good and meaningful people who also exist, and who prove what is possible. But in any case, even if all of them were demons, and one felt in herself the power of what is good, and a striving for the ideal, one would have to have the courage to be the only angel among devils.
-Malwida von Meysenbug (1816-1903)
I agree.
Now I must go heed the call of the chocolates on the Interlibrary Loan desk.
1 comment:
Before the Sophie database, there was a collection of short stories in German by women writers, an anthology put together by Joseph O. Baker and Michelle Stott (now M. S. James). The collection is titled "Im Nonnengarten." I got to edit that volume. It's now all these years later that I get to see the name Malwida von Meysenbug again! That's a whopper of a name. No wonder some people end up with pseudonyms like Marilyn Monroe. (Whoops ... wrong example to bring up, in the cause of feminism!) ... Marmot Dad
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