Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Commodities of Desire: The Prostitute in Modern German Literature

Commodities of Desire: The Prostitute in Modern German Literature

Schönfeld, Christiane
Lareau, Alan
Richards, Anna

Hardcover

Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture, Book 1

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 1571131981
ISBN13: 9781571131980
Publisher: Camden House Inc
Published: Feb 1 2001
Pages: 280
Weight: 1.25
Height: 0.75 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The first collection of essays treating exclusively the figure of the prostitute in modern German literature.

Unlike her counterpart in French literature, and despite her importance in drama, poetry, and prose, the figure of the prostitute in modern German literature has been a largely neglected phenomenon. Commodities of Desire addresses this omission: it is the first collection of essays to exclusively investigate this colorful and multi-faceted figure in its many forms and mutations. The book pursues this goal by analyzing a number of key texts -- from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Weimar Republic -- and by providing the social, legal, and cultural contexts necessary for their interpretation. While the 'sex-worker' has been a presence in literature for centuries, the prostitute was never more popular in German literature than between the late 1880s and the early 1930s. It was then -- during a time when prostitution had become one of the most pressing social problems of urban Germany -- that the streetwalker became a symbol of the destructive and fertile forces of the metropolis, an allegorization of the political and social crisis, and a vehicle for biting social criticism. This book focuses on prostitutes as literary figures and prostitution as a topic in works by well-known and lesser-known writers. It thus clarifies the iconography of the prostitute and aids the reader in understanding her significance in the development of modern German literature.

Christiane Schönfeld teaches German at the University of Galway, Ireland.

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