IS THERE A TRADITION OF humorous and ironic writing in women's literature in German before the twentieth century? What can the study of narrative texts published between 1840 and 1900 reveal on this front and what is the significance of the answer for an appreciation of the qualities of German literature more generally? Thanks to the work of distinguished scholars in Europe and the United States since the 1970s there is a steadily growing recognition of the value and volume of literary works by women in German before 1900, but there is still an imperfect understanding of the richness and diversity of that fugitive heritage. Most reclamation work concerns itself with aspects of women's writing that can be instrumentalized in political arguments supporting a broadly feminist, left-wing agenda. They are not necessarily devoid of humor and can contain ironies of various stripes, but these dimensions have seldom attracted critical attention.

Around the end of the nineteenth century women's contribution to German literature was highly visible and its widespread recognition evidenced in reference works and reviews. In 1907 Theodor Klaiber could write,

He and his contemporaries Richard M. Meyer and Ernst Brausewetter all comment on the role of irony and humor in the works of the writers discussed here. Later generations of critics lose this perspective.