A secret thing: Forgetting the author in Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's Das erste Gedicht

This article examines the notion of secrecy in Annette von Droste-Hulshoff's poem Das erste Gedicht (1846), pursuing its inquiry through a critical analysis of the gendering of space and authorship in Walter Benjamin's commentary on her poetics in Deutsche Menschen. Eine Folge von Briefen (1936). Critics have understood Das erste Gedicht as an autobiographical and exemplary expression of Droste-Hulshoff's authorial origins in secrecy and shame. By contrast, my article shows how the poem foregrounds forgetting rather than remembering as a poetological figure, thus challenging the notion that authorship originates in a singular past. In dismantling conventional ideas about the relation among time, memory, and writing, Droste-Hulshoff seems to anticipate literary modernism. Drawing on her manuscripts and letters, this article further shows how the poem's literary genesis reveals a critical engagement with shame and secrecy as gendered affects conventionally attributed to women writers in mid-19th-century Germany.

Automated summary

This article examines the notion of secrecy in Annette von Droste-Hulshoff's poem and manuscript, exploring her attention to secrecy and shame and challenging traditional notions of authorship and memory.