Commodities of Desire

Unlike her counterpart in French literature and despite her importance in drama poetry and prose the figure of the prostitute in modern German literature has been a largely neglected phenomenon. <I>Commodities of Desire</I> addresses this omission: it is the first collection of essays to exclusively investigate this colorful and multi-faceted figure in its many forms and mutations. The book pursues this goal by analyzing a number of key texts -- from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Weimar Republic -- and by providing the social legal and cultural contexts necessary for their interpretation. While the 'sex-worker' has been a presence in literature for centuries the prostitute was never more popular in German literature than between the late 1880s and the early 1930s. It was then -- during a time when prostitution had become one of the most pressing social problems of urban Germany -- that the streetwalker became a symbol of the destructive and fertile forces of the metropolis an allegorization of the political and social crisis and a vehicle for biting social criticism. This book focuses on prostitutes as literary figures and prostitution as a topic in works by well-known and lesser-known writers. It thus clarifies the iconography of the prostitute and aids the reader in understanding her significance in the development of modern German literature.<BR><br>Christiane Schönfeld teaches German at the University of Galway Ireland.