“Sophie” and the “Theater”

Abstract

The works treated in this book have two things in common: they all explore and challenge the notion of ideal femininity as defined in late eighteenth-century Germany, and they each depict an encounter between that ideal femininity and the theater. More precisely, each of these works mobilizes the theater and performance as a means of articulating its challenge to dominant notions of “natural” gender identity, particularly as they applied to women. Because these works are situated within, and draw upon, particular historical configurations of both ideal femininity and notions of performance, in this chapter I provide context for my discussion by mapping out those configurations.