SOURCE: Joeres, Ruth-Ellen B. “‘That Girl Is an Entirely Different Character!’¹ Yes, But Is She a Feminist?: Observations on Sophie von La Roche's Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim.” In German Women in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Social and Literary History, edited by Ruth-Ellen B. Joeres and Mary Jo Maynes, pp. 137-56. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.

In the following essay, Joeres explores Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim for its feminist aspects, which center on the literacy and education of the author and main character.

The pinpointing of feminist thought in literary works from centuries other than our own is fraught with many problems, not the least of which have to do with the pitfalls of anachronism and ambivalence. The former plagues us, because an investigation of any past era is bound to involve the danger of incorrect assumption not only about historical facts, but even...