| dc.description.abstract | German[Ink]: Tattooing in 20th- And 21st-Century German Culture investigates how the practice of tattooing participated in processes of social transition in the wake of moments of perceived cultural rupture in Germany after 1900. This dissertation explores three moments in German history resulting in significant cultural transformation: the First World War, the Holocaust, and German Reunification. Each chapter analyzes cultural objects featuring tattoos to reveal important shifts in body politics, or in how the body was seen, engaged with, and displayed in German society.
Adopting a Media Studies approach, German[Ink] isolates three categories of media comprising tattooing: visual image, writing, and animation. The Introduction delineates the emerging field of Tattoo Studies, provides working definitions, and prepares the reader for an investigation into the tattooing history of Germany. Chapter One discusses two works by visual artist Otto Dix depicting tattoos: Suleika: das tätowierte Wunder (1920) and Sadisten gewidmet (1922). The chapter elucidates how these paintings depict the interwoven elements of female sexual agency, male fantasy, and their impact on Weimar society as Germany experienced a reconfiguration of gender roles following the First World War. Chapter Two addresses the rupture of the Holocaust through Ruth Klüger’s memoirs weiter leben and unterwegs verloren. Klüger’s written accounts present her complex relationship to her Auschwitz tattoo and the considerations, pressures, and perceived responsibilities that accompanied it. Finally, Chapter Three investigates the fragmentation of the body in an increasingly digitized and commoditized Germany as featured in Robert Schwentke’s film Tattoo (2002). This dissertation demonstrates how tattooing plays a critical role in the visual registry and exploration of evolving social norms and how those norms relate to corporeal experience. The project thus highlights the importance of practices that renegotiate and experiment with the body in the absence of cultural stability. | |
