This paper analyzes the representations of female experience in the metropolis and small town in Irmgard Keuns 1932 novel 'Das kunstseidene Mädchen.' Structured as a diary, the novel reflects modern time at the Weimar Republic characterized by unprecedented technological progress, advances of women in the work place, and a shift towards a greater female sense of independence, through the eyes of the eighteen-year-old female character.
Based on Georg Simmels work *, a complex modern urban space is associated with the dominance of capitalist structures, anonymity, refusal to be emotionally moved by people or things as well as increased personal freedom. Small town is seen as a contrast to the metropolis. In Keuns novel, the characters journal entries indicate that certain structures in both spaces are similar, such as the emerging ideology of National Socialism, unemployment, and changing self-images of both men and women that nevertheless remain influenced by the traditional patriarchal world view. In spite of the fact that the main character sees the narrowness of the provincial town as the obstacle for achieving independence, it is where she develops a sense of a dream that encourages her quest for self-realization. The dichotomy of the abovementioned phenomena, which serve as obstacles to female emancipation, and dreams to fulfill her potential is what ultimately unites the characters experiences of modernity in both spaces. In this sense, big city becomes another small town for Keuns main character.
*Kurt Wolff (Trans.) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press, 1950, pp. 409-424.