Cultural and literary historians investigate the unique literary bridge between German-speaking women and the "New World," examining novels, films, travel literature, poetry, erotica, and photography. In a 1798 novel by Sophie von La Roche, a European woman swims across a cold North American lake seeking help from the local indigenous tribe to deliver a baby. In a 2008 San Francisco travel guide, Milena Moser, the self-proclaimed "Patron Saint of Desperate Swiss Housewives," ponders the guilty pleasures of a media-saturated world. Wildly disparate, these two texts reveal the historical arc of a much larger literary constellation: the literature of German-speaking women who interact with the New World. In this volume, cultural historians from around the world investigate this unique literary bridge between two hemispheres, focusing on New-World texts written by female authors from Germany, Austria, or Switzerland. Encompassing a broad range of genres including novels, films, travel literature, poetry, erotica, and even photography, the essays include women's experiences across both American continents. Many of the primary literary texts discussed in this volume are available in the online collections of Sophie: A Digital Library of Works by German-Speaking Women (http://sophie.byu.edu/). Contributors: Christiane Arndt, Karin Baumgartner, Ute Bettray, Ulrike Brisson, Carola Daffner, Denise M. Della Rossa, Linda Dietrick, Silke R. Falkner, Maureen O. Gallagher, Nicole Grewling, Monika Hohbein-Deegen, Gabi Kathoefer, Thomas W. Kniesche,Julie Koser, Judith E. Martin, Sarah C. Reed, Christine Rinne, Tom Spencer, Florentine Strzelczyk, David Tingey, Petra Watzke, Chantal Wright. Rob McFarland and Michelle Stott James are both Associate Professors of German at Brigham Young University.

Reveals Ann Tizia Leitich, American correspondent for Austrian newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s, as an important cultural mediator between the two countries. After the First World War, Vienna was overrun by jazz, Hollywood movies, and Fordism; its citizens were both fascinated and appalled by the waves of American ideas and products. To make sense of the American phenomenon, readers turned to Ann Tizia Leitich, the New York-based correspondent for Vienna's prominent daily Neue Freie Presse and other newspapers. Rob McFarland tells the story of Leitich's escape, occasioned by a personal crisis, from Austria to America in 1921, and of her rise as a journalist, cultural historian, and novelist. By the early 1930s, she had met President Coolidge, Senator Sol Bloom, the writer Upton Sinclair, and the critic H. L. Mencken. Her devotedreaders - including the novelist Stefan Zweig and the Austrian chancellor Ignatz Seipl - sought in her witty, insightful descriptions of the United States some American vitality to invigorate their own moribund culture and economy. Chronicling Leitich's career as a journalist, cultural historian, and novelist and providing close readings of her writings about America, this book reveals her as an important cultural mediator between Austria and America. Rob McFarland is Associate Professor of German at Brigham Young University.

An encyclopedic selection of original documents from the Austrian capital's pathbreaking, progressive interwar period, translated and with contextualizing introductions and commentaries. The current blockbuster German TV series Babylon Berlin introduces viewers to the tumultuous period in German history known as the Weimar Republic. Critics have praised the series for its relevance to the present: it showsdark populist forces undermining a fragile democracy. While Weimar Germany makes a fascinating backdrop, its story does not inspire much hope for our present-day political and cultural woes. A fascinating contrast is the Austrian capital, Vienna. After the First World War the former imperial city elected a Social Democratic majority that persisted into the 1930s. "Red Vienna" undertook large-scale experiments in public housing, hygiene, and education,while maintaining a world-class presence in music, literature, art, culture, and science. Though Red Vienna eventually fell victim to fascist violence, it left a rich legacy with potential to inform our own tumultuous times. The Red Vienna Sourcebook provides scholars and students with an encyclopedic selection of key documents from the period, carefully translated and introduced. The thirty-six chapters include primary works from canonical names such as Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schnitzler but also introductions to lesser-known figures such as sociologist Kathe Leichter and health-policy pioneer Julius Tandler. The documents will be of interest to such diverse disciplines as economics, architecture, music, film history, philosophy, women's studies, sports and body culture, and Jewish studies.

An encyclopedic selection of original documents from the Austrian capital's pathbreaking, progressive interwar period, translated and with contextualizing introductions and commentaries. Immediately after World War I, in 1919, the Austrian capital Vienna elected a Social Democratic majority that persisted until 1934. The city's leaders, together with its intellectuals, boldly imagined a new society that would be economically just, scientifically rigorous, and radically democratic. "Red Vienna" undertook experiments in public housing, welfare, and education while maintaining a world-class presence in science, music, literature, theater, andother fields of cultural production. Though Red Vienna eventually fell victim to fascist violence, it left a rich legacy with potential to inform our own tumultuous times. The Red Vienna Sourcebook provides scholars and students with a selection of some 280 key texts from the period, carefully translated and introduced. These texts connect readers to the era's most fascinating discussions, movements, and personalities and will be of interest to such diverse disciplines as architecture, economics, film studies, history, Jewish studies, literary studies, music, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, sports, and women's studies.