The Invisible Woman: The Case of the Female Playwright in German Literature 1

Literary historians maintain that women have never contributed significantly to the German drama. Facts, however, point clearly to the opposite. Indeed, the first known German dramatist (10th century) was a woman! Two major causes for the lack of historic recognition are: (a) prejudice that women are incapable of good dramatic production, (b) underrating of plays because professional critics —traditionally men — have used male psychology as the criterion for judging female characters in plays by women. A revaluation of women's contributions to drama is imperative.