‘SCHÖNE JUGENDLICHE MÄDCHENKÖPFE’: GENDER AND ‘GENIE’ IN LOU ANDREAS-SALOMÉ’S MENSCHENKINDER

Abstract

In her essay ‘Der Mensch als Weib’ (1899) Lou Andreas-Salomé compares women to trees: both produce their ‘fruit’ unintentionally. This comparison seems to allow very little scope for active female creativity, let alone ingenuity. Closer inspection, however, reveals a more differentiated view of questions of gender and creativity. By bringing biology together with psychology and outlining the differences between male and female desire, Salomé establishes the feminine as an entity in its own right. Although she denies the existence of female genius, women and geniuses suspiciously seem to have a lot in common in her writing: both embody a heightened self-sufficiency through their very essence. Characters who illustrate the complex relations between self-fulfilment, desire and creativity can be found throughout Salomé’s literary work; I take as my example here the early ‘Novellencyclus’ Menschenkinder (1899). Hans Holtema (‘Mädchenreigen’), Hildegard (‘Das Paradies’) and Irene von Geyern (‘Zurück ans All’) possess skills that can best be described as ingenium, an innate gift, which is often seen as a challenge by their (male) surroundings. Rather than offering dogmatic answers, Salomé’s novellas as well as her theoretical work around 1900 emphasise the richness of debates about gender and genius.