Ina Linge (University of Cambridge) discusses her research on the performance of queer identities in German sexological and psychoanalytic life writings.

Abstract:

Dori and Nora, the protagonists of The Diary of a Male Bride (1907) and A Man’s Maiden Years (1907), respectively, leave their small-town relatives behind to become shop girls in the German metropolis. They appear to be members of a generation of ordinary working class girls populating the department store – except that, in the eyes of their contemporaries, they are not ordinary, because they are not girls. This talk traces the textual representation of the queer body in early twentieth-century sexological life writings as it becomes an object of display, both during sexological examination and as queer commodity on the shop floor.

Watch a video of Ina talking to us about more of her research here.

This event was part of the Centre for Medical History seminar series, University of Exeter.