German Sexology and the Art of Literary Evidence

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• Dr. Anna Katharina Schaffner (University of Kent)
• Monday 13 May 2013, 17:00-18:30
• Grad Seminar Rm, 3rd Fl. Raised Faculty Bldg., Sidgwick Site.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Katie Stone.

Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Iwan Bloch and of course Freud, who drew substantially on the studies of various nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sexologists, all make extensive use of literary sources in their works. Not only do they adopt terms and concepts from fictional texts, but literary representations frequently serve as evidence in their works and are treated as case studies which are deemed as valid as empirical observations. This blending of discourses has substantially shaped the nosologies of the early sexologists and, by implication, psychoanalysis. This paper analyzes the epistemological status and functions that are assigned to fictional representations in a few sexological and psychoanalytical works as well as the wider theoretical ramifications of factualizing fictions.

This talk is part of the German Graduate Research Seminar series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Department of German and Dutch
• German Graduate Research Seminar
• Grad Seminar Rm, 3rd Fl. Raised Faculty Bldg., Sidgwick Site

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