Elisa von Hof's "Unsichtbare Musen" Examines the Muse-Genius Dynamic from Antiquity to Kim Kardashian

Elisa von Hof, deputy culture editor at Der Spiegel, has published a cultural-history nonfiction book titled "Unsichtbare Musen. Über Frauen, die unsere Welt veränderten" (Invisible Muses: On Women Who Changed Our World). The book traces how the relationship between muse and genius has evolved, drawing on examples ranging from Gala Dalí to Kim Kardashian, and proposes an alternative to what it characterizes as a toxic model. The cover design signals the author's argument: the prefix "Un" in the title is struck through in bold pink. Von Hof's survey is wide-ranging and is underpinned by gender theory. The first section addresses historical aspects of the "muse," reaching back to Greek antiquity, where muses were venerated as divine sources of inspiration and as mediators of knowledge and creativity. Thinkers and artists of that era invoked divine beings to lend prestige to their work. The book is reviewed in the current issue of the Freitag by Wolfgang Asenhuber. The full review is available to readers in that edition.