Crimes-of-Passion-Konferenz 2013
Münster, 24. - 26. Juli 2013 Internationale und interdisziplinäre Tagung Crimes of Passion: Repräsentationen der Sexualpathologie im frühen 20. Jahrhundert Die Tagung Crimes of Passion widmete sich der Trias Sexualität – Kriminologie – Literatur im frühen 20. Jahrhundert und versuchte sich an einer fundierten Zusammenschau. Internationale (Nachwuchs-)Wissenschaftler*innen haben die Repräsenta-tionen und Philosophien sexueller Devianz im breitesten Sinne analysiert, wobei der Schwerpunkt insbesondere auf den Wechselwirkungen zwischen Literatur, Philosophie, Kriminologie und Sexologie lag. Dabei war es ein besonderes Anliegen, ausgehend von einem weiten Textbegriff sowohl literarische als auch wissenschaftliche Repräsentationen sexueller Devianzen einer literaturwissenschaftlichen Lektüre zu unterziehen. Zusätzlich wurden die anthropologischen, geschichtswissen-schaftlichen, kunstgeschichtlichen, soziologischen und kultur-poetologische Fragen im historischen Kontext der Sexualpathologie diskutiert. Organisation: Oliver Böni und Japhet Johnstone |
Keynotes
Keynote No. 1: Dr. Anna Katharina Schaffner (Canterbury): "Sexology and Literature: On the Uses and Abuses of Fiction“; 24. Juli 2013 um 15.00 Uhr.
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Keynote No. 2: Prof. Dr. Scott Spector (Ann Arbor): "Passionate Crimes, Bodies of Knowledge: Lustmörder and Sensual Women at the Fin de Siècle“; 25. Juli um 18.30 Uhr.
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Tagungsbericht
The
discourse on sexual pathology claimed a central position in modern European
culture almost as quickly as it began to establish itself as a scientific
discipline. The bonds between science and culture seem all the more visible
when it comes to the science of sexual deviance, as many sexual scientists were
quick to point out in their works. Without empirical or statistical material at
hand, the scientists turned to other sources of knowledge in order to
legitimize and systematize sexual pathology. Their earliest case studies came
from literature. Indeed, certain authors found themselves under examination, as
sexual themes in their books were treated as evidence of pathological
fantasies. These literary perversions became the basis for sexual pathologists’
scientific interpretations and psychological analyses. As part of the formation
and development of the discipline, the connection between sex and crime also
played a central role in the scandals, injustices, and power struggles
associated with sexual pathology in the early 20th century.
The popular reception of works by Richard Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld, or Erich Wulffen, in addition to their contested scientific reception, attest to a wide interest in social deviation with sexual deviants being just one particularly scandalous branch of alterity. Indeed, deviation is the Other to that which is socially accepted, legitimate, and institutionalized. Social deviance by definition breaks course from what is construed as “normal.” The deviant breaks with the social order and, depending on the particular historical and political configuration, might be dealt with as a criminal. The debate surrounding Paragraph 175 of the German penal code that made sexual relations between people of the same sex illegal highlights the virulent history of how sexual deviance and crime were yoked together. Paragraph 175—enacted in the 19th century, but which was not completely repealed until 1994—brought certain sexual relations with their own specific social and cultural sanctions into the juridical realm of penal codes and state regulation. A significant part of this new institutionalization of sexual deviance (both academically and in terms of the law) involved thematizing gender roles, especially questions of “the female.” The pathologization of femininity was famously and scandalously presented by Otto Weininger in his Geschlecht und Charakter, a work that marks another controversial episode in the history of sexual pathology and modernism.
Our papers present historical discussions of the following topics: representing criminalized femininity/masculinity; the reception of sexual theories in literature and popular culture; representing and theorizing perversion; intersections of criminal, sexual and political/social discourses; the politics of sexual crimes; anthropological aspects of sexual pathology; and cultural criticism and sexual pathology.
The popular reception of works by Richard Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld, or Erich Wulffen, in addition to their contested scientific reception, attest to a wide interest in social deviation with sexual deviants being just one particularly scandalous branch of alterity. Indeed, deviation is the Other to that which is socially accepted, legitimate, and institutionalized. Social deviance by definition breaks course from what is construed as “normal.” The deviant breaks with the social order and, depending on the particular historical and political configuration, might be dealt with as a criminal. The debate surrounding Paragraph 175 of the German penal code that made sexual relations between people of the same sex illegal highlights the virulent history of how sexual deviance and crime were yoked together. Paragraph 175—enacted in the 19th century, but which was not completely repealed until 1994—brought certain sexual relations with their own specific social and cultural sanctions into the juridical realm of penal codes and state regulation. A significant part of this new institutionalization of sexual deviance (both academically and in terms of the law) involved thematizing gender roles, especially questions of “the female.” The pathologization of femininity was famously and scandalously presented by Otto Weininger in his Geschlecht und Charakter, a work that marks another controversial episode in the history of sexual pathology and modernism.
Our papers present historical discussions of the following topics: representing criminalized femininity/masculinity; the reception of sexual theories in literature and popular culture; representing and theorizing perversion; intersections of criminal, sexual and political/social discourses; the politics of sexual crimes; anthropological aspects of sexual pathology; and cultural criticism and sexual pathology.
Tagungsprogramm
Das detallierte Programm können Sie hier downloaden:
programm_cop_2013_final.pdf | |
File Size: | 324 kb |
File Type: |
Förderer
Impressionen
© Innokentij Kreknin