Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2025

War on Silence: Bruno Vogel's Alf and the Struggle for Queer Visibility in Interwar Germany

Résumé

It is an undeniable fact that without diverse voices enriching official narratives, entire groups — voiceless communities — would be wiped from the collective memory. Literature has long served as a platform for minorities and oppressed people to reclaim and share their experiences: through writing, history moves into the present, becoming a fact, a reality1, often confronting contemporaries with their own amnesia. Moreover, the act of writing on its own serves as a space where identity is formed and meaning negotiated, in order for individual experience to be circulated as “collective coin”2. However, sharing stories of oppressed communities and rendering them available for a larger audience has not always been as effortless as it might seem today. Published in 1929, Bruno Vogel’s novel Alf is one of the few queer narratives of the First World War in German literature, serving thus not only as an individual exploration of queer identity, but offering itself as a voice for the collective war experience of gay soldiers. In view of the precarious, even dangerous situation facing the homosexual community living in the context of “Paragraph 175”, which criminalised same-sex relationships in Germany until 1994, I aim to take a new look at the novel as an act of resistance against an oppressive, abusive system and follow its impact on interwar German society. Deeply involved in fighting against the discrimination of the queer community through groups such as Wir and Gruppe Revolutionärer Pazifiste, Vogel combined literary and social activism in order to shed light on a history that would have otherwise been consigned to silence. Furthermore, I aim to underline the important role of publishing houses such as ASY and cultural networks such as the Gilde freiheitlicher Bücherfreunde who supported the publication of the novel and helped its dissemination despite legal and social backlash.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
War on Silence_ Bruno Vogel’s Alf and the Struggle for Queer Visibility in Interwar Germany.pdf (170) Télécharger le fichier
Origine Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)

Dates et versions

hal-04921721 , version 1 (30-01-2025)

Licence

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04921721 , version 1

Citer

Maria Tudosescu. War on Silence: Bruno Vogel's Alf and the Struggle for Queer Visibility in Interwar Germany. Modern Language Association 2025, Modern Language Association, Jan 2025, New Orleans (LA), United States. ⟨hal-04921721⟩
0 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

More