Queer Writing

Kraß, Andreas; Wolf, Benedikt

doi:10.1017/9781107449466.012

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Above all, representations of Berghain’s interior often exist only in written form. According to an overview of early 21st century German literature, ‘Berghain even initiated a distinctive literary genre’ with several novels set in and around the club while journalistic coverage, popular and academic scholarship, as well as various blog entries devoted to its mystique proliferated (Krass and Wold, 2017: 201). This mystique or ‘aura’ was aided and preserved by the club’s notoriously selective door policy and long queue.…”

Section: The Exterior and The Landscapementioning

confidence: 99%

Berghain: Space, affect, and sexual disorientation

Andersson

2022

Environ Plan D

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In this article, I think of Berlin’s techno club Berghain as a form of relational aesthetics where encounters mediated by tactile sounds, labyrinthine architecture, and libido-enhancing drugs create an unusually porous sexual subjectivity. By sketching out some changes in the composition of the club’s crowd and drug culture – a shift towards aphrodisiac substances such as G and mephedrone – I argue that Berghain has become a specific pharmacolibidinal constellation. Especially the recreational drug G can be thought of as an unruly liquid that concretises queer theory’s preoccupation with sexual fluidity. Instead of nausea-inducing drugs in combination with same-sex erotica – a popular technique in so-called ‘aversion therapy’ – this is a ‘gay conversion therapy’ in reverse whereby erotic horizons expand and multiply through the combination of chemicals and a multi-sensory overload of pleasurable stimuli. Rather than thinking of sexual orientation as located inside the body, I suggest, we might think of it as located inside the building.

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Section: The Exterior and The Landscapementioning

confidence: 99%