Background
Mrs.Gustafson was born in Albany, Georgia, United States, on May 21, 1959.
(At what point in history did a "homosexual identity" begi...)
At what point in history did a "homosexual identity" begin to emerge? Many cultural historians have agreed with Foucault that the late 19th century witnessed its birth. Susan E. Gustafson goes beyond the medical, psychoanalytical, and legal discourses that Foucault viewed as the initiators of modern sexual identities to explore the literature and discourse of male-male desire a century earlier, within the tradition of German Classicism. Reading such authors as Goethe, Winckelman, and Moritz, she finds a self-conscious formulation of same-sex desire leading to a sense of identity and community. The book focuses on the ways men who desired one another in the 18th and early 19th centuries expressed their longings and identities in new poetic formulations. Gustafson shows that major figures of German Classicism struggled consciously and systematically in their letters, works on aesthetics, and literary production to create a new language to express their own sense of same-sex desire.
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(Drawing on Kristevan psychoanalysis and feminist critical...)
Drawing on Kristevan psychoanalysis and feminist critical theory, Absent Mothers and Orphaned Fathers presents a highly original reevaluation of the role of the mother in the work of Lessing, the influential German critic and dramatist of the 18th century who profoundly shaped German literary tradition. While scholars have contended that the mother is missing in Lessing's dramatic tragedies, because she is often dead or relegated to a weak or minor role, Susan Gustafson discovers that the "absent mother" is anything but absent; she is everywhere. Her apparent absence is a ruse, an integral component of Lessing's literary ideology which insists upon the father's sole control over cultural production.
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(Throughout his literary work Goethe portrays characters w...)
Throughout his literary work Goethe portrays characters who defy and reject 18th and 19th century ideals of aristocratic and civil families, notions of heritage, assumptions about biological connections, expectations about heterosexuality, and legal mandates concerning marriage. The questions Goethe's plays and novels pose are often modern and challenging: Do social conventions, family expectations, and legal mandates matter? Can two men or two women pair together and be parents? How many partners or parents should there be? Two? One? A group? Can parents love children not biologically related to them? Do biological parents always love their children? What is the nature of adoptive parents, children, and families? Ultimately, what is the fundamental essence of love and family? Gustafson demonstrates that Goethe's conception of the elective affinities is certainly not limited to heterosexual spouses or occasionally to men desiring men. A close analysis of Goethe's explication of affinities throughout his literary production reveals his rejection of loveless relationships (for example, arranged marriages) and his acceptance and promotion of all relationships formed through spontaneous affinities and love (including heterosexual, same-sex, nonexclusive, group, parental, and adoptive).
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Mrs.Gustafson was born in Albany, Georgia, United States, on May 21, 1959.
Susan Gustafson attended University of Minnesota—Duluth in 1977-1980. In 1981 she graduated from University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree (summa CUm laude). From 1981 to 1982 she attended University of California, Gavis. In 1982 Mrs. Gustafson graduated from Stanford University, receiving Master of Arts degree, in 1987 she obtained her Doctor of Philosophy. Between 1983 and 1984 she attended University of Bonn.
Mrs. Gustafson was a Gharles Taft postdoctoral fellow at University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, during the period of 1986-1987. She worked at University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, as an assistant professor between 1987 and 1994, associate professor of German and comparative literature since 1994 and associate department head since 1994.
In 1988 she was appointed associate at Susan B. Anthony Research Institute. Susan Gustafson served as a lecturer at colleges and universities, including Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Delaware.
Mrs. Gustafson was a contributor to books, including Images, Bodies, and Texts in the Eighteenth Century, Outing Goethe and His Age. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals in the United States and Germany, including Poetics Today, PMLA, Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, and Eighteenth-Century Studies.
(Drawing on Kristevan psychoanalysis and feminist critical...)
(Throughout his literary work Goethe portrays characters w...)
(At what point in history did a "homosexual identity" begi...)
Susan Gustafson married Gary P. Gustafson in May, 1980.