Schauspiele des Sehens

English summary: This study addresses the question of how North American authors Ann Sophia Stephens, Gertrude Stein, Annie Dillard and the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo used the genre of the essay in order to take on figures of the observer traditionally not available to the female perspective, such as the classic male figure of the flaneur, the voyeur, the cultural-critical observer and the stalker. The study's main questions leading up to its conclusions are: which cultural practices...
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English summary: This study addresses the question of how North American authors Ann Sophia Stephens, Gertrude Stein, Annie Dillard and the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo used the genre of the essay in order to take on figures of the observer traditionally not available to the female perspective, such as the classic male figure of the flaneur, the voyeur, the cultural-critical observer and the stalker. The study's main questions leading up to its conclusions are: which cultural practices do the respective authors apply in order to show and re-design the correlation between the position of the female subject and the traditionally male observers, to create an alternative female gaze, or else to affirm hegemonic points of view (in the literary sense of the word) in a conservative way? Which observing bodies are given a view and in what kind of essayistic framework, and what must the authors do in order to achieve this? German description: Die Studie geht der Frage nach, wie sich die U.S.-amerikanischen Autorinnen Ann Sophia Stephens, Gertrude Stein, Annie Dillard und die mexikanische Malerin Frida Kahlo die essayistische Schreibpraxis zu Nutze gemacht haben, um sich Betrachterfiguren anzueignen, die traditionell nicht fur weibliche Subjektpositionen zuganglich waren, wie etwa die klassisch mannliche Figur des Flaneurs, des Voyeurs, des kulturkritischen Beobachters und des Stalkers. Die erkenntnisleitenden Fragestellungen der Arbeit lauten: Welche kulturellen Praktiken mobilisieren die jeweiligen Autorinnen, um das Verhaltnis zwischen weiblichen Subjektpositionen und traditionell mannlichen Betrachterfiguren in den Blick zu rucken, umzukodieren, alternative weibliche Beobachterfiguren zu entwerfen oder auch hegemoniale Blickpositionen auf konservative Art und Weise zu affirmieren? Welche Betrachterkorper durfen in welchen essayistischen Rahmungen einen Blick haben und was mussen die Autorinnen an Aufwand dafur leisten?