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German literature and film are full of chaste young women who fulfill social expectations by serving as maternal caregivers. In her provocative new study, Lauren Nossett suggests that such selfless servants perpetuated patriarchy and provided a sense of stability in a German society thrust into the maelstrom of modern times. Lucid, thorough, and sophisticated, it is highly recommended for all students of modern German literature and culture. --Todd Kontje, author of Imperial Fictions: German Literature Before and Beyond the Nation-State The Virginal Mother in German Culture is a very compelling, well-organized, and detailed analysis of the contradictory and developing tensions between eighteenth to twentieth century fascinations with virginity and the idealization of maternal nature in Germany. It is a unique and field-transforming study. --Susan Gustafson, author of Goethe's Families of the Heart

German literature and film are full of chaste young women who fulfill social expectations by serving as maternal caregivers. In her provocative new study, Lauren Nossett suggests that such selfless servants perpetuated patriarchy and provided a sense of stability in a German society thrust into the maelstrom of modern times. Lucid, thorough, and sophisticated, it is highly recommended for all students of modern German literature and culture. -Todd Kontje, author of Imperial Fictions: German Literature Before and Beyond the Nation-State The Virginal Mother in German Culture is a very compelling, well-organized, and detailed analysis of the contradictory and developing tensions between eighteenth to twentieth century fascinations with virginity and the idealization of maternal nature in Germany. It is a unique and field-transforming study. --Susan Gustafson, author of Goethe's Families of the Heart

Beautifully written, persuasively argued and extensively researched, this book details the cultural, social, and political importance of the 'virginal mother figure.' While many English novels feature a governess, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German literature prefers a non-professional alternative: a chaste, young woman who takes care of someone else's children. Nossett demonstrates convincingly that the figure of the virginal mother is made to serve various ideological agendas, both conservative and progressive: she polices female and male sexuality and justifies the exploitation of female domestic labor, but she also undermines notions of woman's innate propensity toward caregiving and exemplifies the need for the education of the female sex. --Elisabeth Krimmer, UC Davis German literature and film are full of chaste young women who fulfill social expectations by serving as maternal caregivers. In her provocative new study, Lauren Nossett suggests that such selfless servants perpetuated patriarchy and provided a sense of stability in a German society thrust into the maelstrom of modern times. Lucid, thorough, and sophisticated, it is highly recommended for all students of modern German literature and culture. --Todd Kontje, author of Imperial Fictions: German Literature Before and Beyond the Nation-State The Virginal Mother in German Culture is a very compelling, well-organized, and detailed analysis of the contradictory and developing tensions between eighteenth to twentieth century fascinations with virginity and the idealization of maternal nature in Germany. It is a unique and field-transforming study. --Susan Gustafson, author of Goethe's Families of the Heart

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Lauren Nossettis a visiting assistant professor of German at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia.

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