de 
fr 
As part of the Peter Lang Pride Month celebrations, volume editor Flora Roussel continues the conversation.
In times of conservative politics and discourse, the edited volume Embodied Realities offers an overview of recent queer, feminist, and intersectional debates across literature, film, performing arts, and the history of ideas. The book provides insights in how literature, film, and art can serve as sites of resistance that challenge normative conceptions of the body and reality.
Contributors offer cutting-edge analyses of the artistic power as well as reflections on activist life experiences. Following in the footsteps of Black, feminist, and queer activists who have striven to rethink resistance by giving a voice to those who have been silenced, the volume presents various “othered” realities that defy the expected reality defined by the hegemonic powers in place. It also refocuses attention on “embodiment” by showcasing strategies of reappropriation, disruptions of stereotypes, as well as alternative constructions of community and solidarity.
For instance, Chapter 1 features testimony by Katharina Oguntoye, who recounts how she transformed the racist, sexist, and anti-queer reality she lived in into an embodied activism to create spaces of growth. Further, Chapter 5 interrogates marginalization, queerness, and the body in contemporary performances by tracing other (art) histories through the use of queer techniques (freak, crip, etc.).
Embodied Realities is a unique collaboration among activists, authors, and scholars, highlighting the importance of positionality in relation to identity, gender, class, and sexuality.
Read more and purchase the book, here. Embodied Realities is Volume 24 in the book series Women, Gender and Sexuality in German Literature and Culture, edited by Helen Finch and Katherine Stone.
Use code ER30 at checkout to receive a 30% discount on Embodied Realities, or contact orders@peterlang.com to order directly. Valid until 2 July 2026. Not applicable in countries with fixed book pricing.
Contents
Foreword (Ervin Malakaj)
Introduction: Looking Further, Constantly Growing (Flora Roussel)
1 The One and the Other: Continuing the Work of Audre Lorde in Germany (Katharina Oguntoye)
2 Writing (through) Trauma in Jasmina Kuhnke’s Schwarzes Herz: Voyeuristic Entertainment or a Path to Collective Healing? (Kathrin Spiller)
3 An “Ordinary Grotesque”: Ambiguous Queer Feminist Body Politics in Simone Meier’s Fleisch (Flora Roussel)
4 From Montreal to Berlin: Carrying on the Work of Audre Lorde (Carolyn Gammon)
5 The Micropolitics of Contemporary Queer Feminist Performances in Germanophone Countries (Priscilla Wind)
6 Queer Precarious Lives: Negotiating Diversity in the German Public Broadcasting Web Series Becoming Charlie (Charlotte Kaiser)
7 How I Became a Feminist Writer (Albeit a Bad One) (Melanie Raabe)
8 Feminine Genius on Screen: On Margarethe von Trotta’s Biopics (Francis Tremblay)
Flora Roussel is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at McGill University. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Montreal. Her research interests include feminist, queer, and intersectional considerations of bodies, relationalities, and affects as well as exophony and its potential to transform literary studies.
Throughout June, Peter Lang will mark Pride Month by showcasing a range of publications that explore and celebrate LGBTQ+ experiences across disciplines, from film and literature to sport, history, and public policy. This curated focus reflects our ongoing commitment to amplifying diverse voices and advancing inclusive scholarship, recognising the importance of equitable representation within academic publishing.
