McAllister (German, Wake Forest U., North Carolina) argues that German writer Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) constructed a literary world of ambiguity and uncertainty in which gender absolutes are as rare as truth and self-certainty. He analyzes four texts and their leading female characters to show the relationship between Kleist's theory of feminine representation and Idealist discourse within the context of Kantian aesthetics. The characters, he concludes, employ an act of subjugation to manipulate and subvert Idealist discourse, particularly the figure of representation that grounds that discourse. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)