Abstract
The works Otto Dix produced in the wake of the First World War hold the continued focus of art historians and German Culture scholars eager to revisit the Weimar era, rife with shifting body politics. Dix, known for his unapologetically brutal depictions of war scenes and war-ravaged bodies resulting from the conflict, contributed to the tapestry of Weimar Culture by intentionally, and strategically, highlighting those placed at the periphery by positioning them as central in his work. Included in the demographics socially shunned, placed in a perpetual state of social precarity, were women who embraced tattoo practices. In my paper, I discuss a mere selection of the many tattooed women found in Dix’s oeuvre to provide insight on how tattoos present an alternative medium for close reading than those traditionally pursued in German Studies. My presentation details my process of engaging in cultural analysis using the surface of the body as the medium featuring the multimodal practice of tattooing – folding media analysis of visual culture with that of the body as surface of inscription and inspection. I present a theoretical framework engaging the fields of Gender Studies (Studlar; Gordon; Bridenthal; Funkenstein), conceptualizations of the tabu (Freud, Mcinnes and Sichel), and the investment of the skin/body as valuable (Benthien; Caplan; Pitts). My case study focuses on the works Suleike, das Tätowierte Wunder (1920 - Ölgemälde); Maud Arizona - Suleika, das tätowierte Wunder (1922 - Drypoint), Blatt 5 der Mappe „Zirkus,” and Sadisten gewidmet (1922).
Presenters
Cynthia PorterAssistant Professor, German Studies, The Ohio State University, Ohio, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
German Studies, Body Culture Studies, Communication, Body Politics, Media Studies
