G825
Spring 2003
Breger

Topic:
Configurations of Gender and Sexuality: German Literature and Theory
around 1900 and 2000

In this seminar, we will discuss cultural representations of gender
and sexuality at two different historical moments: In the years
before and after 1900, in-between Sexualwissenschaft and
psychoanalysis, literary representations of ‘fatal women’, the
contemporary women’s movement and the development of Männerbünde in
both theory and society, these interrelated categories evolved as
crucial tools for conceptualizing subjectivities and collective
identities. A century later, in the context of feminisms and
backlashes, gender and queer studies, recent fiction is, once more,
obsessed with questions of gender and sexuality. In discussing some
of these texts, we will try to map topical configurations of gender
and sexulity, asking, e.g., in which ways these categories continue
to shape our notions of subjectivity and culture, and to what degree
are we still operating within the paradigms established one hundred
years ago.

Required readings:

Butler, Judith: Gender Trouble. Routledge 1999 (ISBN 0415924995).

Foucault, Michel: The History of Sexuality, vol. I. Vintage 1990
(0679724699).

Franck, Julia: Liebediener. Dtv 2001 (ISBN 3423129042).

Freud, Sigmund: Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie. Fischer 2000
(ISBN 3596104408).

Houllebecq, Michel: Elementarteilchen. List Taschenbuchverlag 2001
(ISBN 3548600808),   or
English edition: The Elementary Particles. Vintage 2001
(ISBN 0375727019).

Jelinek, Elfriede: Die Klavierspielerin. Rowohlt 1997
(ISBN 3499158124).

Meinecke, Thomas: Tomboy. Suhrkamp 2000 (3518396188).

Musil, Robert: Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless. Rowohlt 2002
(ISBN 3499103001).

Roes, Michael: Der Coup der Berdache. Btb Bei Goldmann 2001 (ISBN
3442726662).

Zaimoglu, Feridun: Liebesmale, scharlachrot. Kiepenheuer & Witsch
2002 (ISBN 3462030973).

(German books – all of them are paperback and inexpensive! – can be
ordered from IBIS: 1-800-277-4247).

A course reader with shorter texts and extracts from both theory and
literature.