Full Description
When Branded: A Diary was published in Berlin in 1920, Emmy Hennings was called the most important woman writer of her day. Her autobiographical novel offers a sharp critique of patriarchy and the social injustices of the last decade of the German Empire, infused with a mysticism that celebrates sexual love as a spiritual gift and assigns saintly status to beggars and sex workers. Drawing on the experimentation of Dadaists and Expressionists and inspired by modern technologies such as the camera and gramophone, Hennings radically shatters novelistic conventions. Over a century after the novel's publication, this translation finally introduces an important modernist voice to English-language readers, accompanied by an illuminating selection of contextual materials and an informative introduction.
Contents
Introduction
Branded: A Diary
In Context
Literary Contexts
from Margarete Böhme, The Diary of a Lost One (1905)
Emmy Hennings's Work in Vaudeville: The Divining Spider (1915)
from Emmy Hennings, Prison (1919)
from Siegmund Bing, review of Das Brandmal [Branded], Frankfurter Zeitung (7 May 1921)
Religious Contexts
from Saint Augustine, Confessions
from Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (1418)
Social Contexts
from Tony Kellen, The Plight of our Actresses: A Study of the Economic Situation and Moral Standing of Stage Artists, as well as a Warning and Guidance for Young Ladies who wish to Dedicate themselves to the Stage (1902)
from Camillo Karl Schneider, The Prostitute and Society: A Socio-Ethical Study (1908)
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