title: Sexing Berlin?
abstract: Berlin has always been a literary space of extremely diverse political and cultural projections. This essay investigates why after the unification of East and West Berlin the city has been imagined as a play zone of sexual self-fulfilment by authors such as Inka Parei, Tanja Dückers, Kathrin Röggla, Judith Hermann and Julia Franck. Have such erotic adventures replaced political vision in our post-utopian decade? What is the purpose of the laboured allegorisation of the fall of the wall in Durs Grünbein's essays or in the novels of Katja Lange-Müller and Thomas Hettche? The sexification of historical and political processes recalls similar stereotypes in the East German literature of the 1980s: the metropolis as a whore in works by Heiner Müller or Wolf Biermann, but also by younger authors of the independent literary scene in Berlin like Uwe Kolbe or Frank-Wolf Matthies.
authors.affiliation: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dahlke
mesh_terms: D001604:Berlin / Q000208:ethnology; D002947:Cities / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004882:Erotica / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008091:Literature / Q000266:history; D019365:Metaphor; D010988:Play and Playthings / Q000523:psychology; D011056:Political Systems / Q000266:history; D011634:Public Health / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D019529:Sexuality / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D012940:Social Problems / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D012941:Social Responsibility