The Feminist Reception of Ingeborg Bachmann

This essay examines the feminist reception of Bachmann's writing from the publication of Malina (1971) to the present. I argue that feminists' enthusiasm for Bachmann derived from the cultural climate out of which West German feminism emerged and produced readings that corresponded to the movement's theoretical assumptions. By the mid-eighties a feminist approach to Bachmann indebted to radical feminism and poststructuralism had gained dominance over Bachmann studies. Later feminists were more uncertain about how to read Bachmann. Some retained a poststructuralist method, others ignored gender, and a few devised new methods that move beyond the limitations of eighties feminism. (S.L.)