Abstract

Why has the idea prevailed that the eighteenth century produced no women who stood alongside men as equals? Because the assessment of these women perpetuates the structural violence that enabled the rise of bourgeois society. Margareta Klopstock (1728 –1758) left a corpus that includes letters and literary texts of various genres. Both her work and her persona were appropriated by her renowned husband, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, in the precarious edition titled ›Hinterlaßne Schriften von Margareta Klopstock‹, which remains uncritically accepted as a source for evaluating this author. However, in her letter on fashion, she reflects on the ethical foundation of an aesthetic feminism, which defines her unique position within the network of the European Enlightenment—a position of great significance due to Margareta Klopstock’s political claim.