“Aurelie Werner”: Intersections Between Hysteria and the Jewish Woman’s Assessment of Jewishness in the late 19th Century

Authors

Claire H. Woodward, Gettysburg CollegeFollow

Class Year

2020

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Fall 2018

Department 1

German

Abstract

"Aurelie Werner" is a story written by Sara Hirsch Guggenheim, a prominent neo-Orthodox writer in late 19th century Germany. This article analyzes the portrayal of Jewish women during this period, and the ways in which women responded to and coped with exclusion and prejudice. Specifically, "Aurelie Werner" portrays a young woman's experience of anxiety and uncontrolled emotion as she discerns her place in society as a Jew and as a woman. In the early 20th century, these symptoms would be designated as 'hysteric' in nature, and would often be used to describe the demeanor of Jewish women as they grappled with Jewish identity in a largely antisemitic society. Aurelie's hysteria is representative of the Jewish woman's lack of control, which is grounded in not having the power or status to control one's own identity.

Comments

Written for German 351: The German-Jewish Experience

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Woodward, Claire H., "“Aurelie Werner”: Intersections Between Hysteria and the Jewish Woman’s Assessment of Jewishness in the late 19th Century" (2018). Student Publications. 641.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/641