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BODY CRISIS, IDENTITY CRISIS: HOMOSEXUALITY AND AESTHETICS IN WILHELMINE- AND WEIMAR GERMANY

PRICKETT, DAVID JAMES
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1053700766

Abstract Details

2003, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences : Germanic Languages and Literature.
The following study inquires into the emergence and development of homosexuality in German medical, legal, and social discourses from the turn of the last century through the Weimar Republic. Literary works, medical journals, homosexual journals, visual art, and film from the turn of the last century to the early thirties reflect a growing “gender crisis” throughout German society. Such primary media provide the data for this study. Of particular interest are the works, theories, and the person of Magnus Hirschfeld, a physician whose politics were social-democratic and who was of Jewish background. Hirschfeld was himself homosexual, but never portrayed himself as such due to the legal and political climate of his times. Having published extensive studies on homosexuality,hermaphroditism (today’s “intersexual”), and transvestism, Magnus Hirschfeld was an established sexologist in Wilhelmine Germany. In 1919, Hirschfeld founded the world’s first Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. This Institute was a site of research, consultation, and therapy for those who sought enlightenment in sexual matters including birth control, venereal disease, intersexuality, and homosexuality. This project examines the dissemination and reception of Hirschfeld’s progressive theories both inside and beyond the medical community—indeed, how homosexuals themselves responded to Hirschfeld’s project of normality. This response, which I term the “modernist homosexual aesthetic,” is the basis of my thesis. The “modernist homosexual aesthetic,” an aesthetic, self-affirming expression of male homosexual identity, arises from this period of gender crisis in Germany, and is that aesthetic force that not only defines but is defined by the homosexual male body. I maintain that the media of photography,literature, and popular journals disseminated this aesthetic among those who sought to define themselves simultaneously outside normative gender roles and in a positive manner.
Katharina Gerstenberger (Advisor)
268 p.
Magnus Hirshfeld; Weimar Germany; Weimar Literature and Photography; gender studies; homosexuality in Germany

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • PRICKETT, D. J. (2003). BODY CRISIS, IDENTITY CRISIS: HOMOSEXUALITY AND AESTHETICS IN WILHELMINE- AND WEIMAR GERMANY [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1053700766

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • PRICKETT, DAVID. BODY CRISIS, IDENTITY CRISIS: HOMOSEXUALITY AND AESTHETICS IN WILHELMINE- AND WEIMAR GERMANY. 2003. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1053700766.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • PRICKETT, DAVID. "BODY CRISIS, IDENTITY CRISIS: HOMOSEXUALITY AND AESTHETICS IN WILHELMINE- AND WEIMAR GERMANY." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1053700766

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.