Abstract of the dissertation:

At the end of the Weimar Republic, the literary processing of the First World War came into being in Germany. A special form of writing culture was established, which also included autobiographical publications by women, a fact that has been neglected to this day. Most contributions of the female authors were provided by women who, by working as Red Cross nurses during the First World War, had been on ‘Female Military Service’. They wrote from the perspective of a Red Cross nurse, caught between the ‘cultures’ (war/peace, frontline/home front, man/woman). Although informed by a variety of political leanings and intentions, all these publications were penned in the style of the ‘autobiographical novel’. In the present research, they are examined in the context of gender history through means of comparative analysis. Do these autobiographical novels disclose similarities and differences between them? The resulting investigation is based on the historical, societal, and political discourse surrounding the Red Cross nurse as related to her space for action, her ability to act and ultimately her agency, as described in the autobiographical publications. The project aims to work out the models of femininity underlying these autobiographical novels, consequently providing an answer to the question to which extent the texts can be considered part of the struggle beginning in the 1930s for the power of interpretation of the First World War. The research endeavour pursues the depiction of the significance of the Red Cross nurses’ memories in its complexity and contradictoriness through various levels of investigation. As such, it contributes substantially to the processes concerning the construction of female identity as well as the subject-matter of war experience, perception of war and wartime memories. With its scientific approach exploring the complexity of historical studies, literary studies and gender history, the project adopts an interdisciplinary orientation.