When Branded: A Diary was published in Berlin in 1920, Emmy Hennings was called the most important woman writer of her day. Her autobiographical novel offers a sharp critique of patriarchy and the social injustices of the last decade of the German Empire, infused with a mysticism that celebrates sexual love as a spiritual gift and assigns saintly status to beggars and sex workers. Drawing on the experimentation of Dadaists and Expressionists and inspired by modern technologies such as the camera and gramophone, Hennings radically shatters novelistic conventions. Over a century after the novel's publication, this translation finally introduces an important modernist voice to English-language readers, accompanied by an illuminating selection of contextual materials and an informative introduction.
