This event is sponsored by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
The essay that will be discussed explores the experience, imaginary, and emotions of the prolonged revolutionary moment of 1918-19 in which Germany’s war, defeat and revolution became inextricably entwined. It explores the intertwined and often dissonant experiences of living through the war’s aftermath while envisioning and enacting a new future, one that encompassed new forms of governance and political representation in which notions of gender and sexual order and disorder were tangible. The almost complete absence of gender in political history of the revolution contrasts sharply with the presence of volatile, uncertain, changing and contested masculinities and femininities in the visual art, film, theater, and fiction of the immediate post-war period and in the diaries, novel, and dramaturgy of the early years of the Republic. This essay probes the concept and history of “revolution” in 1918-19 from the perspective of gender.
The pre-circulated paper will be available on Monday, April 13.
To request a copy or for more questions, please contact Birgitta Killough at bkohlerk@umich.edu.
| Speaker: |
Kathleen Canning, U-M
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