„Misterium naszej miłości” — refleksy dyskursu medycznego w nieheteronormatywnej prozie pierwszej połowy XX wieku

Abstract

The paper begins with a brief sketch on the most important figures and themes in German sexological studies (Ulrichs, Weininger, Krafft-Ebing, Hirschfeld) in the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, followed by a discussion of selected non-heteronormative literary texts of the time from that perspective. Discussed novels include prose by authors such as Elisabet Weirauch, Helene Mühlau, Maximiliane Ackers and others. Exploring the relationship between medical discourse and literary prose, the article focuses on the discussion of relevant ideas such as the concept of lesbian desire as a “law of nature”, furthermore on the binary opposition between what is normal and what is outside the norm and on the portrayal of homosexual desire as a “perversion”. The article examines, firstly, how literature responds to medical theories in the discursive layer and how it directly addresses its various topics. Secondly, it is shown how the influence of medical discourse is noticeable also in the form of literary texts: in the construction of characters, language, metaphors used, construction of the plot. The article analyzes non-heteronormative German-language texts which have so far received too little attention from the academic community and thus brings them out of oblivion.