Dr. Kerstin Fest: New Women – New Artists? Femininity and Art in Christa Winsloe’s "A Life Begins" (1936)
In this paper I investigate the depiction of female artists in Christa Winsloe’s A Life Begins (1936). A Life Begins is a künstlerroman telling the story of young Eva-Maria who escapes from her bourgeois background to train as a sculptress in Munich. Soon she becomes a member of a hedonistic bohemian circle, but feels that she has yet to find her 'true' identity as an artist. The novel is part of a broader inter-war discourse concerning gender identity and art. Modern art and the 'new’ emancipated woman are both regarded as symptoms as well as incitements of the changing times. In his manifesto Die Frau als Künstlerin [Woman as Artist] (1928) critic Hans Hildebrandt denies the possibility of artistic genius in women yet states that this new woman will also bring about the new (female) artist. Winsloe is of course less conservative than Hildebrandt but also presents femininity and art as an uneasy combination. This paper will show how she develops a concept of the female artist that transcends socially constructed notions of femininity (both conservative and progressive) and culminates in the ideal of celibate asceticism for the sake of art.
Location: Kane Building G7, UCC.
Time: 6.30 - 8.00, Thursday 3 March
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