Do women and men read differently? The book explores this question from a historical perspective. Drawing upon written testimonies of readings of Goethe's works by women and men, it attempts to establish whether gender difference was in fact a category with a decisive impact on the act of reading around 1800. The comparative study casts a relativizing light on allegedly typical gender-specific reading modes by demonstrating that those modes are to be found equally among men and women. In marked contrast to the ongoing debate on >compulsive reading< and the starkly exaggerated gender polarities it pivots on, it transpires that in the practice of reading other factors such as poetological concepts are of much greater relevance than gender.

Autorentext
Silke Schlichtmann,1967 in Stade geboren, ist promovierte Literaturwissenschaftlerin. Sie arbeitete als freie Wissenschaftlerin und Lektorin, bevor sie selbst Geschichten schrieb. Silke Schlichtmann lebt mit Mann und vier Kindern in München.