Gender, Collaboration, and Authorship in German Culture challenges a model of literary production that persists in literary studies: the so-called Geniekult or the idea of the solitary male author as genius that emerged around 1800 in German lands. A closer look at creative practices during this time indicates that collaborative creative endeavors, specifically joint ventures between women and men, were an important mode of literary production during this era. This volume surveys a variety of such collaborations and proves that male and female spheres of creation were not as distinct as has been previously thought. It demonstrates that the model of the male genius that dominated literary studies for centuries was not inevitable, that viable alternatives to it existed. Finally, it demands that we rethink definitions of an author and a literary work in ways that account for the complex modes of creation from which they arose.

Notes on Contributors AcknowledgementsIntroductionLaura Deiulio (Christopher Newport University) and John B. Lyon (University ofPittsburgh)1. The Gottscheds: Conjugal Authorship as a Disjointed VentureMargaretmary Daley (Case Western Reserve University, USA)2. A Dynamic Interplay: Cooperation between Sophie von La Roche, Christoph Martin Wieland, and Goethe on Their Way to AuthorshipMonika Nenon (University of Memphis, USA)3. "Collaborating with Spirits": Cagliostro, Elisa von der Recke, and the Phantoms of UnmündigkeitMichelle Stott James (Brigham Young University, USA) and Rob McFarland (Brigham Young University, USA)4. A Freedom Apart: Feminine Bildung in Sophie Mereau's "Marie" and Amanda und EduardTom Spencer (Brigham Young University, USA) and Jennifer Jenson (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA)5. Scenes from a Marriage: Friedrich and Dorothea Schlegel, Collaboration as Symphilosophy and AfterAdrian Daub (Stanford University, USA)6. Holy Hermaphrodite: The Collaboration Between Caroline and Friedrich de la Motte FouquéEleanor ter Horst (University of South Alabama, USA)7. Concepts of Collaboration: Märchenomas, the Woman Writer, and the Brothers GrimmJulie Koehler (Wayne State University, USA)8. A Meeting of Minds? The Dialogue Between Voices Female and Male in the Poems of the West-Eastern DivanCharlotte Lee (University of Cambridge, UK)9. The Correspondence of Rahel Levin Varnhagen and Ludwig Robert: Epistolary Writing as a Space for SymphilosophierenLaura Deiulio (Christopher Newport University, USA)10. Reflexive Authorship in Bettina Brentano-von Arnim's Die Günderode: Narrative Disunity, Hölderlin, and GünderrodeKaren R. Daubert (Washington University, St. Louis, USA)11. "Where Words Are Not Enough": Audience and Authorship in the Marriage Diaries of Robert and Clara SchumannBrian Tucker (Wabash College, USA)12. Therese Robinson's Die Auswanderer (1852) as Goethe's Future Novel of AmericaJudith E. Martin (Missouri State University, USA)Index