| The Nazi Abduction of Ganymede: Representations of Male Homosexuality in Postwar German Literature Contributor(s): Schmidt, Gary (Author), Brown, Peter D. G. (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0820458724 ISBN-13: 9780820458724 Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing OUR PRICE: $51.25 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: September 2003 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | European - German - Literary Criticism | Women Authors - Social Science | Women's Studies |
| Dewey: 830.935 |
| LCCN: 2003058065 |
| Series: Studies in Modern German Literature, |
| Physical Information: 307 pages |
| Themes: - Sex & Gender - Feminine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The male homosexual appears in many guises in postwar West German literature: whether he is a sexually predatory soldier, corrupt teacher, decadent artist, purveyor of kitsch, or powerful industrialist, he appears almost always as an insider of the social and political system. Writers such as Heinrich Boll, Wolfgang Koeppen and Alfred Anderch utilized images of homosexuality in order to examine the Nazi past and to critique the Federal Republic of Germany. Their literary depictions are infomed by discourses that circulated in the early twentieth century, including the scientism of Magnus Hirschfeld, the masculinism of the German youth movement and the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen, and the literary irony of Thomas Mann. Pre-Nazi images of homosexuality reappear in postwar West German literature in a new sociohistorical context, in which the meaning of the Nazi past and its relationship to the new Federal Republic is debated on many levels. The Nazi Abduction of Ganymede traces the development of a postwar West German literary tradition that participated in parallel developments in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and popular culture, all of which continued to find new ways to link homosexuality with fascism. |