Sapphic Spectres: Lesbian Gothic in Interwar German Narratives
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Sapphic Spectres: Lesbian Gothic in Interwar German Narratives Hannah Louise O’Connor, M.A. Cardiff University, 2014 Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MPhil. DECLARATION This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MPhil. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 3: BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter- library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… Abstract Existing scholarship on interwar German lesbian narratives has largely overlooked the role of Gothicism in their portrayal of sapphic sexuality. This thesis examines the use of established Gothic motifs in Alfred Döblin’s Die beiden Freundinnen und ihr Giftmord (1924), Anna Elisabet Weirauch’s Der Skorpion (1919-31) and Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s Eine Frau zu sehen (2008). It also illustrates how the appropriation and modification of Gothic tropes, such as vampirism, haunting and doubling, reflect the ambivalence and hostility toward homosexuality internalised by the sapphic subject during the interwar period. My analysis considers the reimagining of vampiric figures in the first volume of Weirauch’s trilogy and Döblin’s fictionalised account of the scandalous 1923 Ella Klein and Margarete Nebbe case. It then outlines the sapphic uncanny aesthetic established in Schwarzenbach’s novella and the third volume of Der Skorpion, engaging primarily with Freud’s theory of the Uncanny. The thesis offers a sapphic Gothic reading of the chosen corpus of texts, broadening Paulina Palmer’s notion of lesbian Gothic and Terry Castle’s perception of the lesbian as an apparitional figure. My analysis identifies the gothicised aesthetic used in interwar lesbian narratives, such as Weirauch’s Der Skorpion and Schwarzenbach’s Eine Frau zu sehen, in order to convey internalised anxieties regarding lesbianism. These ambivalent depictions of same-sex desire invite new understandings of sapphic selfhood at this critical moment in the conceptualisation of modern lesbian identity. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr Monika Hennemann and Professor Claire Gorrara for their invaluable feedback and incredible patience. I am especially indebted to Professor Gorrara for her continued support throughout this project. Particular thanks are due to Dr Becky Munford, who provided insightful comments on chapters one and two. I would also like to thank Dr Ruth Owen for her encouragement during the initial stages of this research, as well as Anna White, who read through early drafts of the chapters. Finally, thanks must also go to my partner Laura Carter, whose unfailing love, belief and support have made this research possible. A Note on Translation Throughout, all translations from the original German source material are my own unless otherwise specified. Contents Introduction: Defining the Sapphic Gothic ........................................................................................... 2 I. German Tales? The Modern Gothic and the German Context ............................................. 3 II. Sapphic Subjects and the Female Gothic: Moving Beyond Distressed Damsels and Claustrophobic Castles? ............................................................................................................................... 7 III. Queer Gothic: A Marriage of (In)Convenience? ................................................................... 13 IV. From Lesbian Panic to Sapphic Gothic: Situating the Sexual Stranger Within ....... 18 V. Situating Sapphic Spectres: Lesbian Literature in Interwar Germany .......................... 24 Sapphic Suckers: Vampiric Desire in Anne Elisabet Weirauch’s Der Skorpion (1919) and Alfred Döblin’s Die beiden Freundinnen und ihr Giftmord (1924) ............................................. 31 I. Introduction: Homoeroticism, Hostility and the Vampiric Model ............................... 32 Domestic Gothic: Anxieties about the Vampire and the Heteronormative Home ..... 41 Sapphic Symbiosis: Fearing the Vampire within the Self ................................................... 46 II. Strolling the Sapphic Streets: Reimagining the Vampiric Figure in the Modern City Space ................................................................................................................................................... 52 III. Mummy Issues: The Maternal Homoerotic and the Vampire in the Home .......... 64 IV. Representing the Urge to Merge: Vampiric Desire and the Loss of Sapphic Selfhood ...................................................................................................................................................... 73 V. Beyond the Carmilla Complex: Reconciling the Stranger within the Self ................. 85 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 86 Haunted by Her: The Sapphic Uncanny in Anna Elisabet Weirauch’s Der Skorpion (1931) and Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s Eine Frau zu sehen (2008) .................................................... 88 I. The Stranger Within: The Sapphic Split Subject ................................................................. 89 II. Repetition and the Return of the Repressed: Schwarzenbach’s Uncanny Aesthetic .................................................................................................................................................. 107 III. Double Trouble: The Uncanny Doppelgänger in Der Skorpion .............................. 115 IV. Memory and the Metropolis: (Un)Dead Representatives ........................................ 124 V. Conclusion: The Female Uncanny and the Lesbian ‘Problem’ .................................... 131 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................... 136 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 144 Introduction: Defining the Sapphic Gothic 2 I. German Tales? The Modern Gothic and the German Context The Gothic is a literary mode or aesthetic that allows for the articulation of anxieties by projecting them onto unsettling or monstrous settings, experiences and figures.1 Consequently, tropes and motifs associated with Gothicism have provided a productive means of representing internalised fears about deviant sexuality and taboo behaviours since the inception of the mode in the eighteenth century. This study proposes a sapphic Gothic reading of interwar German-language portrayals of lesbianism, examining the appropriation and reimagining of established Gothic tropes, such as the vampire, the double and the spectre.2 My analysis will focus on the gothicised representation of sapphic sexuality and selfhood in Alfred Döblin’s Die beiden Freundinnen und ihr Giftmord (1924), Anna Elisabet Weirauch’s Der Skorpion trilogy (1919-31) and Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s Eine Frau zu sehen (2008), written in 1929. As an alternative to established medico-legal discourse on the subject, the chosen literary narratives afford a unique understanding into the ambivalent attitudes toward sapphic sexuality. Most notably they invite new approaches to the complex construction of lesbian identity and selfhood during this critical moment in its conceptualisation. This introduction will outline the conceptual, contextual and critical frameworks upon which my analysis is developed. Firstly, it will define what precisely is meant by the Gothic, especially in a German or modern context. It will then map the established scholarship on the female and queer Gothic literary traditions, identifying their constraints as 1 For in-depth discussion of Gothic motifs and their embodiment of socio-cultural fears, see Fred Botting, Gothic: The New Critical Idiom (London and New York: Routledge, 1996). 2 Drawing on the established notion of the lesbian Gothic tradition outlined by Paulina Palmer, I suggest the term ‘sapphic Gothic’ as an alternative to better reflect the distinctly modern conceptualisation of sapphic sexuality and selfhood in the early twentieth century, prior to the contemporary construction of lesbian identity following the advent of the Women’s Liberation and Post-Stonewall gay rights movements. For greater discussion of the lesbian Gothic approach to contemporary narratives, see Paulina Palmer, Lesbian Gothic: Transgressive Fictions (London: Cassell, 1999). 3 frameworks for examining depictions of sapphic sexuality and selfhood. It then engages with existing contemporary criticism on lesbian sexuality and Gothicism, most notably Palmer’s notion of the lesbian Gothic and Terry Castle’s positioning of lesbian literary figures as apparitional. Finally,