Wilhelmina Wittigschlager’s Minna: The Portrait of a Dazzling Jewish Feminist, Anarchist, and Nihilist
Wilhelmina Wittigschlager’s Minna: The Portrait of a Dazzling Jewish Feminist, Anarchist, and Nihilist

Summary/Abstract: Wilhelmina Wittigschlager’s novel, Minna: Wife of the Young Rabbi, published in 1905, serves as a case in point for characterizing a young audacious Jewish female protagonist who, against all odds, by breaking societal conventions and exercising a strong will and remarkable determination, attains individual freedom and struggles for political and social justice. This study has yielded some important insights regarding the key role Minna’s multiple racial, religious, and national identities play in the construction of her fictional self. By examining the cultural, historical, and societal influences upon Wittigschlager, as she was in the process of writing the novel, this paper aims at showing how the fictional portrayal of a Jewish defiant female protagonist is interlaced with the factual lifestyles, culture, and representations of some actual contemporary female rebels such as Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, and Hesya Gelfman. Minna’s Jewishness serves as the central point of her characterization, while the exploration of the pertinent socio-historical, cultural, political, and economic aspects outlines the environment in which her character was conceived.

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