Fanny Lewald (1811-1889)

Abstract

In contrast to most of her critics, this chapter argues that Lewald's ambivalent view on female emancipation is a vital ingredient rather than a shortcoming of her writing. This chapter discusses her statements on female independence along with narratives and arguments of key philosophical debates of the Enlightenment. The chapter examines the resonance of religious controversies involving Spinoza, Lessing, and Mendelssohn in her work, and investigates how Kant's response to the question "What is Enlightenment?" formed her life and thinking. In dialogue with leading voices of her time, she stakes out her own position, first and foremost focused on pragmatic social changes as vehicles for an open-ended process of self-emancipation. Women, she claims, need access to formal education and the labor market to gain control over their lives. In laying out her plans, she is less concerned with how woman ought to be and more concerned with the circumstances that allow her to become.