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Copyright of Publications of the English Goethe Society is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Allgemeines Historisches Taschenbuch, oder Abriss der merkwürdigsten neuen Welt-Begebenheiten (General Historical Pocketbook, or Outline of the most remarkable new world events), published in Berlin in 1784 and supported by the Academy of Arts, contained one of the most important contemporary accounts of the North American Revolution, titled Geschichte der Revolution von Nord-Amerika (History of the North American Revolution) by Matthias Christian Sprengel, professor at Göttingen University. It further contained influential illustrations, among them twelve engravings designed by Academy member Daniel Chodowiecki, each depicting a key motif from the American struggle for independence and its outcome. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), an original copy of the pocket book with the Geschichte der Revolution has been preserved, and it is unique in that eleven drawings by Johann Heinrich Ramberg are glued in in addition to the original plates. Ramberg of Hanover was to follow Chodowiecki as the most prolific artist in German book illustration. Several of the drawings are dated 1786 or 1787, when the young Ramberg was a fellow at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, studying under the American history painter Benjamin West. These drawings are examined and published in their entirety here for the first time. An article published in Amerikastudien in 1978 first mentioned the drawings in the Metropolitan Museum and their obvious connection to the Chodowiecki prints, stating they posed a "puzzling iconographic problem" because the German artist in London appeared to change the viewpoint in at least one case. This article follows up on Jantz's observation. It examines how Chodowiecki's designs all show the perspective of the British or share a "neutral" outsider perspective. I argue that in nearly all cases, Ramberg moves the observer closer to the action, takes on the perspective of the Americans or one sympathetic to them, shows more emotion and movement than Chodowiecki, and thus invites an emotional reaction from the viewer. The question of whether Ramberg planned publication, though, remains unanswered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maria Theresia Paradis (1759–1824) was a teenage piano prodigy and one of the very few female composers of any acclaim before the nineteenth century. She was a Wunderkind not only because she was female, but also because she was blind, or at least severely visually impaired. This brief essay argues that the more important Wunder exemplified by Paradis was not her early performance career, but rather the fact that her career stretched well into adulthood. Paradis has traditionally been seen as a pitiable victim of her impairment. I instead contend that she escaped the constraints of middle-class gender roles. Her accomplishments as an organizer of dilettante academies and the director of a private music school deserve far more recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

24 Wochen (2016; 24 Weeks, 2016), directed by Anne Zohra Berrached, depicts the complexity of a German couple's decision to abort a fetus aft er prenatal tests diagnose a genetic disorder and organ defects. This article establishes the film's accurate portrayal of German legal codes and its simultaneous avoidance of moralistic or religious arguments in lieu of a focus on the inner turmoil of the pregnant woman and her partner. It applies sociologist Myra Marx Ferree's contrastive analysis of gender politics in Germany and the United States to examine 24 Wochen as capturing Merkel-era perspectives on gender roles and familial supports. The film's focus on the decision to abort as one that is individual and primarily determined by the woman carrying the fetus reflects German legislative policy, which leaves the decision to the woman as mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates abortion in Sweden and the depiction of abortion attitudes in the bestselling crime novel Before the Frost (2002) by the internationally acclaimed Swedish writer Henning Mankell in which a man murders women who had an abortion as a major step in his plan of religious revival. It will first review the Swedish abortion law, statistics, and sociological research in order to provide additional background on the history and politics of abortion in Sweden, then show that the novel's dialogues realistically reflects the majority of the population's liberal view of induced abortion as a woman's right supported by the law. I argue that the anti-abortion murders turn out to be the criminal plan's flaw because the inspector solves the murders and prevents the main goal, suicide attacks on Swedish churches and possibly more. The line-up of the plot to the showdown in the early days of September 2001 connects the novel with global terrorism and responses to 9/11 resulting in a message about taking religious motivations seriously. In addition, I highlight the connection between the issue of terrorism and the theme of suicide which runs through the novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illustrations accompanied the Divan from the first publication of poems in the Taschenbuch für Damen auf das Jahr 1817 and the frontispiece with writing in Arabic, arabesque ornamentation, and framing of the title page in the 1819 complete first edition. My article investigates the reception of Goethe's Divan by contemporary artists who provided frontispieces, Titelkupfer, or vignettes for editions of Goethe's works in the last decade of his life (Ramberg, Eichholzer, and Schnorr von Carolsfeld). It appears that the publishing market was not ready for a wider adaptation of a new West-East combination of traditions suggested by Goethe; the editions were illustrated in the established figurative style, including some clichéd orientalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The film Monsoon Baby (2014) by Andreas Kleinert sympathetically shows the needs of the German couple seeking parenthood by gestational carrier in India. I argue that it also takes a strong stand against commercial surrogacy abroad because it points out legal issues and—more importantly—shows how surrogacy work can exploit women's bodies, emotions, mental and physical health and even lives. From a postcolonial perspective, it is also problematic because it contains neo-colonial topoi and attitudes. Surrogacy with foreign intended parents has in the meantime been banned in India, but it may just move to other countries. Monsoon Baby remains an important contribution to the public debate about reproductive rights and choices as well as global reproductive justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution examines a selection of engravings in the parallel edition of frontispieces to Goethe's last edition of his collected works, published in Leipzig by Fleischer (1829–34). Select engravings, based on the five designs by an independent painter and popular illustrator, Peter Carl Geissler, are juxtaposed with those by Gustav Heinrich Nae[c]ke, who was professor of painting at the Saxon Academy. Striking differences in style and the choice of subjects become apparent. Two special cases in the collection round out the analysis: the portrait of Cellini after Vasari, probably by the Nuremberg painter Friedrich Wagner; the Frankfurt painter Johannes Thomas provided the only design with a detailed representation of urban architecture in the collection. Dieser Beitrag dient der weiteren Aufarbeitung der Kupferstichsammlung, die zu Goethes Ausgabe letzter Hand im Leipziger Verlag Fleischer (1829–34) erschien. Die fünf Stiche nach Vorlagen eines selbständigen Malers und populären Illustrators, Peter Carl Geissler, werden den sieben des Akademieprofessors Gustav Heinrich Nae[c]ke gegenübergestellt. Es zeigen sich auffällige Unterschiede im Stil und der Wahl der Sujets. Zwei Sonderfälle in der Sammlung runden die Analyse ab: Das Cellini-Porträt nach Vasari stammt wohl von dem Nürnberger Friedrich Wagner. Der Frankfurter Maler Johannes Thomas lieferte die einzige Vorlage mit einer detaillierten Repräsentation von Stadtarchitektur in der Sammlung. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Several reports published in the current issue of the journal are presented including on racism, sexual violence and patriarchal injustice.

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses the contents within the publication which revolves around the issue of feminist thinking, sexual violence, and political reforms.

The article discusses the political message in the novel version of "Corpus Delicti," by Juli Zeh. The author agrees with some reviews that Zeh's narrative concept is more convincing as a novel with a strong tradition of utopias and science fiction, rather than as a stage representation. He thinks that Zeh has incorporated elements of science fiction and convincingly develops her political point in the scenario of a criminal trial.