Jesse C. Wood and Dr. Michelle Stott James, Germanic and Slavic Languages

Johann Christoph Gottsched is an extremely well-known figure in German literary history. He was a prominent author of the enlightenment, and scholars and casual readers of German drama and literature recognize him as one of eighteenth century Germany’s most read authurs. Unfortunately, the light on Johann Gottsched has cast a shadow on his wife, an equally talented author and playwright. Luise Adelgunde Victorie Gottsched wrote many plays in her life and translated many more. Once her husband began compiling the Dictionary of the German Language & Model Grammar, however, she devoted her time to helping him with this monumental task. Because of Johann’s fame (and Luise’s gender) she received little to no credit for her role in the emergence of the enormous text. Again because of her gender and her husband’s established place in literary society, her other works are left relatively unknown.

Dr. Michelle Stott James and Dr. Robert McFarland of the German department at BYU supervise a faculty-mentoring based research project called Sophie. The purpose of Sophie is twofold: first, through this project undergraduate and graduate students alike have a great opportunity to gain valuable experience doing independent research. As they are mentored by faculty members they learn how to more effectively research and they also have the opportunity to have their findings published online, which improves their chances to further their studies in other graduate programs. The second main goal of the Sophie project is to discover, find, and recover German texts written by woman authors between 1740 and 1923. Because of gender roles in this time period, many texts written by women have been overlooked and neglected. This is a shame as these woman authors were in many cases at least as gifted as many of their more well-known male counterparts. Those working on the Sophie project are dedicated to releasing these texts (as well as music, film, and art from women of the same eras) online on its website through a careful process of transcription, proofreading, and editing.

Luise Gottsched is an author whose works are more than deserving to be made more accessible to the public through a project such as Sophie. My purpose was to bring more of her works to light through study and research. I applied for the ORCA research grant to aid me in traveling to Austria where I would find access to many more source materials and texts to help me in my endeavor. I spent my mornings over spring and summer of 2003 in the Nationalbibliothek (National Library) in Vienna searching for Gottsched’s works (as well as any other works that would benefit the literary community through the Sophie project). I found and was able to copy hundreds of pages of German texts written by woman authors from the last 250 years. Because of the obscurity of many of these authors, these texts would very possibly be impossible to find in any other way. The material I brought home with me is of tremendous value to the Sophie project as is the experience I gained in independent research. Because I intend to spend some time in Germany for graduate studies, this experience in an German-speaking library has especially benefited me.

I am currently working on a collection of five of Luise Gottsched’s comedies called Die Lustspiele der Gottschedin (among other texts brought back from Austria). I have transcribed the plays from the archaic German script to the Latin alphabet on a computer and I have proofread the majority of my transcription to assure its accuracy. I have also researched words that are no longer common enough to be found in a modern German dictionary. These words and their definitions will be included with the text online, as well as an editor’s note (written by myself) and some biographical information on Luise Gottsched. Helping to bring this underappreciated author to more recognition has been a long process (and there is still more work to do), but my time in Austria has helped immensely in this effort.

With its focus on faculty mentoring the Sophie project has helped prepare me for the more demanding research that awaits me in graduate work. Through Sophie I have also become much better acquainted with Luise Gottsched. This helps me to build a broader foundation for my continuing study of German literature. The ORCA grant enriched both of these aspects by providing me funding to travel to Austria and find texts by Gottsched and others for the Sophie project.