Lesbische Literatur und Zwischenkriegszeit: Mythos und Entmystifizierung am Beispiel Der wilde Garten von Grete von Urbanitzky

It is believed that Der wilde Garten (1927) was the first Austrian novel to deal openly with lesbian love, lesbian desire, and lesbian sex. In the course of a queer reading, this article denies limiting identity constructions and presents an analysis that outlines elements of deviance and resistance toward a heterosexual structure and locates these ambiguities as already inscribed in these very systems. The necessary discomfort associated with providing a stage for the National Socialist author Grete von Urbanitzky by discussing one of her books remains a product of the many references to her inhumane, racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic and sexist ideas. The article contextualizes her ideas and the novel's lesbian motifs and gives a broad overview of lesbian life during fin-de-siècle Vienna.