BaronessElsa: An Autobiographical Manifesto
An autobiographical manifesto, Sidonie Smith writes, is "Purposeful, bold, contentious, the autobiographical manifesto contests the old inscriptions, the old histories, the old politics, the ancient regime, by working to dislodge the hold of the universal subject through an expressly political collocation of a new." Presented as autobiographical manifesto, Freytag-Loringhoven's biographical texts, including her life story as told through her autobiography and her correspondences in collocation with (eventually) writings about her by others, may be understood as an evolving attempt to contest the old and encourage the new in dialog and in public.