Sex changes with Kleist / Katrin Pahl.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pahl, Katrin, author.

Contributor:

Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kleist, Heinrich von, 1777-1811.

Criticism and interpretation.

Kleist, Heinrich von, 1777-1811--Criticism and interpretation.

Kleist, Heinrich von.

Sex (Psychology) in literature.

German literature--19th century--History and criticism.

German literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

x, 242 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2019.

Summary:

"Sex Changes with Kleist" analyzes how the dramatist and poet Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) responded to a change in the conception of sex and gender that occurred between 1790 and 1810. Specifically, Katrin Pahl shows that Kleist resisted the shift from a one-sex to the two-sex and complementary gender system that is still prevalent today. With creative close readings engaging all eight of his plays, Pahl probes Kleist's appreciation for incoherence, his experimentation with alternative symbolic orders, his provocative understanding of emotion, and his camp humor. Pahl demonstrates that rather than preparing modern homosexuality, Kleist puts an end to modern gender norms even before they take hold and refuses the oppositional organization of sexual desire into homosexual and heterosexual that sprouts from these norms. Focusing on the theatricality of Kleist's interventions in the performance of gender, sexuality, and emotion and examining how his dramatic texts unhinge major tenets of classical European theater, "Sex Changes with Kleist" is vital reading for anyone interested in queer studies, feminist studies, performance studies, literary studies, or emotion studies. This book changes our understanding of Kleist and breathes new life into queer thought--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Mackles, mess, and metalepsis

Double the drama (transorgasmics)

Mammalogic and analgrammar

Camp (drummer boys)

Offstage onstage, or how to crack an emotion

Obscene lesbians and lost queers.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9780810140110

081014011X

9780810140127

0810140128

OCLC:

1048934162