TY - JOUR TI - Between commodification and emancipation DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3ZC82MH PY - 2010 AB - This dissertation investigates the conflict between the powerful emancipatory image of the New Woman as represented in the illustrated magazines of the Weimar Republic and the translation of this image into a lifestyle acted out by women during this era. I argue that while female journalists promote the image of the New Woman in illustrated magazines as a liberating opening onto self-determination and self-management, this very image is simultaneously and paradoxically oppressive. For women to shake off the inheritance of a patriarchal past, they must learn to adjust to a new identity, one that is still to a large extent influenced by and in the service of men. The ideal beauty image designed by female journalists as a framework for emancipation in actuality turned into an oppressive normalization in professional and social markets in which traditional rules no longer obtained. Women enjoyed the sexual liberation the New Woman‘s image proffered. Yet, at the same time, they struggled to adjust to the image the media promoted – in particular to the demands of a perfect body and a blemish-free surface. Through an analysis of the contributions of female authors to the popular illustrated magazines of the Weimar Republic and the literary texts of these same authors, I draw out the subtleties of the identity struggle the New Woman endured. The authors I consider were themselves torn between the demands of the largely masculine publishing house Ullstein and their personal interests as female authors. While Ullstein asked its authors to retail the New Woman image and sell themselves as authentic New Women, Vicki Baum, Gina Kaus and Irmgard Keun nonetheless took a critical position toward this very image in their works. This complication informs my reading of Irmgard Keun‘s Gilgi-eine von uns (1930) and Das kunstseidene Mädchen (1932), Vicki Baum‘s Pariser Platz 13 (1930), and Gina Kaus‘ss novel Die Verliebten (1929). These texts show a deep ambivalence about the representation of women in the Ullstein magazines Uhu, Die Dame and Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. While the image of the New Woman is constructed in these illustrated magazines, its feasibility is problematized in the literary works of the female writers I consider in this dissertation. KW - German KW - Women--Germany--Social conditions--20th century. KW - Women's periodicals, German KW - Illustrated periodicals--Germany--History--1918-1933 KW - Women journalists--Germany LA - eng ER -