Edited by Lorella Bosco and Anke Gilleir.

Schmerz. Lust investigates authorship as it was experienced and addressed by women writers and artists from the German avant-gardes. Essays dealing with, among others, Else Lasker-Schüler, Käthe Kollwitz, Hannah Höch, Unica Zürn, Emmy Hennings and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven illustrate how the poles of pain and lust defined the often subversive artistic performances and the concepts and strategies of authorship women developed while faced with cultural production’s gendered hierarchy.