Drawing on novels and pamphlets, plays, songs, newspaper and magazine articles, diaries, letters and books, this is a collection of fiction and non-fiction writing by women in the period from 1880 to the end of the First World War. ('Fin de siècle')
The author explores the ways in which Jewish women contributed to the development of Viennese culture and participated in politics and cultural spheres. Areas of exploration include the education and family lives of Viennese Jewish girls and degrees of involvement of Jewish women in philanthropy and prayer, university life, Zionism, psychoanalysis and medicine, literature, and culture. The author also presents findings regarding stereotypes of Jewish gender and sexuality and the politics of anti-Semitism, as well as the impact of German culture, feminist dialogues, and bourgeois self-images.