By Katharina T. Kraus
Abstract:Lou Salomé (1871–1937) was one of the most prolific women writers in Germany at the turn of the century, producing both literary works and essays on topics of religion, philosophy, gender theory, and psychoanalysis. This chapter explores her philosophy of life as a philosophical position in its own right by clarifying the major influences on her position and discussing it in the context of the contemporary philosophy of life movement in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Section 1 examines, in The God and related texts, her critique of religious experience and her positive account of life and the “faith in life,” highlighting specifically the Spinozist and Nietzschean influences on her position. Section 2 focuses on her feminist writings, especially The Human Being as a Woman, and shows how her philosophy of life is reflected in her gender theory, according to which womanhood is understood in terms of a female way of life and development.
Published:
Oxford: Oxford University Press , 2024
DOI:
doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190066239.013.10
Online available:
academic.oup.com
PDF:
Kraus_Katharina_2024_Lou_Salome_Oxford_Handbook
(247.95 KB)