The belief in the possibility of happiness for allhuman beings: writing, empathy and the expansion of rights in Lily Braun’s Die Bürgerpflicht der Frau(1894-1895)

Abstract

Lily Braun’s Die Bürgerpflicht der Frau (The Civic Duty of Women / Woman’s Duty as a Citizen) is a landmark text in the history of the German women’s movement and offers valuable insights into the contradictions and tensions within Braun’s life and thought. In this article I provide a brief summary of Braun’s life and work, present the overall argument of the text, and try to place it in its social and historical context. I argue that Braun’s argument can be described as an attempt to widen the circle of empathy and expand the sphere of moral and legal rights to in clude the women and the working-class poor. This attempt leaves a range of textual features for which I try to offer an in - depth analysis. It is shown that classical utilitarianism may have provided Braun with a framework for articulating her effort to eli cit the empathy of her audience. Finally, it is argued that Braun’s text provides valuable insights into the relationship between narrative and empathic responses, as well as into the role of the addressed audience in mediating between these two spheres.