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Berlin Coquette: Prostitution and the New German Woman, 1890-1933

Online ISBN:
9780801469701
Print ISBN:
9780801452673
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Book

Berlin Coquette: Prostitution and the New German Woman, 1890-1933

Jill Suzanne Smith
Jill Suzanne Smith
Associate Professor of German, Bowdoin College
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Published online:
18 August 2016
Published in print:
28 February 2014
Online ISBN:
9780801469701
Print ISBN:
9780801452673
Publisher:
Cornell University Press

Abstract

During the late nineteenth century the city of Berlin developed such a reputation for lawlessness and sexual licentiousness that it came to be known as the “Whore of Babylon.” Out of this reputation for debauchery grew an unusually rich discourse around prostitution. This book shows how this discourse transcended the usual clichés about prostitutes and actually explored complex visions of alternative moralities or sexual countercultures including the “New Morality” articulated by feminist radicals, lesbian love, and the “New Woman.” The book recovers a surprising array of productive discussions about extramarital sexuality, women's financial autonomy, and respectability. It highlights in particular the figure of the cocotte (Kokotte), a specific type of prostitute who capitalized on the illusion of respectable or upstanding womanhood and therefore confounded easy categorization. By exploring the semantic connections between the figure of the cocotte and the act of flirtation (of being coquette), the book presents flirtation as a type of social interaction through which both prostitutes and non-prostitutes in Imperial and Weimar Berlin could express extramarital sexual desire and agency.

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