Open AccessTO THE (GERMAN) LANGUAGE BEYOND THE BINARY: “ALL THIS HERE, NOW” BY ANNA STERN
Author(s) -
Tatyana V. Zborovskaya
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
praktiki and interpretacii
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2415-8852
DOI - 10.18522/2415-8852-2021-1-128-149
Subject(s) - german , stern , notice , reading (process) , linguistics , normative , literature , meaning (existential) , binary opposition , psychology , sociology , history , art , philosophy , epistemology , political science , ancient history , law , psychotherapist
In German-speaking countries, one could recently notice a rise of significant and remarkable fiction featuring non-binary characters. The article explores how authors tend to designate those characters, and what linguistic tools there are in German to describe them. Apart from that, the article questions about whether practicing gender neutral writing can overcome the practice of gender determined reading, and whether choosing a gender neutral writing strategy could neutralize the gender markers present in the text. It also compares emerging non-binary texts and existing translations of LGBTQI+ literature in Russian (e.g. Steinhöfel, Wittig), gender-normative fiction and verbatim. The emphasis is put on disputable notion of bisexual writing (écriture bisexuelle), developed by Hélène Cixous (“The Laugh of the Medusa”, 1975), both in its neoteric meaning and, according to the contemporary understanding of sex and gender, its controversial form.