Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)
Faculty Mentor Contact Information
Robert Tobin
Keywords
German literature, German, LGBT, lesbian, history, women's history, suicide
Abstract
This paper seeks to understand how, and why, understandings of lesbianism shifted in Germany over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through close readings of both popular cultural productions and medical and psychological texts produced within the context of Imperial and Weimar Germany, this paper explores the changing nature of understandings of homosexuality in women, arguing that over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the dominant conceptualization of lesbianism transformed from an understanding of lesbians that was rooted in biology and viewed lesbians as physically masculine “gender inverts”, to one that was grounded in psychology, and understood lesbians as inherently traumatized, mother-fixated, and suicidal. This paper suggests that this shift was facilitated by the increasing influence of psychologists like Sigmund Freud, and greater German preoccupation with trauma and suicide following WWI, and highlights the importance of historical context in shaping self-understanding.
Recommended Citation
Paradis, Meghan C.
(2016)
"Shifting Understandings of Lesbianism in Imperial and Weimar Germany,"
Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ): Vol. 2, Article 4.
Available at:
https://commons.clarku.edu/surj/vol2/iss1/4
Included in
Comparative Literature Commons, Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, German Literature Commons, History of Gender Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons