Sexuality as Adventure: Form, Experience and Dissidence in Twentieth-Century German and Hispanophone Fiction
Date of Award
Fall 1-1-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Comparative Literature
First Advisor
Fradinger, Moira
Abstract
Adventure novels have often been relegated to the status of trivial literature, but they play an undeniable role in the cultural imaginary of sexuality. As a literary form with its own century-long history and distinct features, the adventure has enabled writers in the twentieth century to represent sexual experiences in fiction. Through my analysis of works by Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Klaus Mann, Luis Zapata, Reinaldo Arenas and Hubert Fichte, I show how literary form shapes the representation of sexuality, and how the adventure itself functions as a "traveling" form across German and Hispanophone contexts. Examining these adventure texts through a comparative lens, I claim that these novels, often written against the backdrop of the criminalization of homosexuality and the solidification of normative gender roles, highlight the critical role of transatlantic travel and mobility in depicting sexuality in fiction. As modern literature, these adventure novels from the twentieth century produce a knowledge on sexuality that demonstrates the creative possibilities and preconditions of form at work in the expression of human experience.
Recommended Citation
Lessmann, Stefan, "Sexuality as Adventure: Form, Experience and Dissidence in Twentieth-Century German and Hispanophone Fiction" (2025). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1959.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1959