Mediating Worlds: The Occult As Projection of the New Woman in Weimar Culture (Essay)

Weimar women were experiencing unprecedented advances in political and social life, yet this was also met with a backlash of traditionalism resulting in their ambiguous status. The "New Woman" was still expected to perform her duties as wife and mother despite her new responsibilities in the world of the work force. Unable to completely fulfill either of these roles in this transitional period, the New Woman assumes what anthropologist Mary Douglas identifies as an ambiguous position. Incapable of fully integrating into the social system, individuals in an ambiguous status are often treated by their community as possessing both desirable qualities, as well as dangerous powers that are to be feared. In what follows, I read the various ways in which the occult woman is treated as both prophet and demon as a marker of the New Woman's similar predicament. I provide a study of mediumism during this period and of various Weimar cultural works (Mary Wigman's expressive dance and Richard Oswald's 1919 film, Unheimliche Geschichten) as a way of demonstrating the transitional status of the New Woman. The Ambiguity of the New Woman