Die trennende Wand: Erotische Normen, Grenzen und Abweichungen in Hermann Sudermanns Der tolle Professor (1926)

A detailed reading of the erotic norms, boundaries and transgressions in an important late novel by Hermann Sudermann which has hitherto received little critical attention. The chapter is based on research which sheds light on the personalities which Sudermann drew upon. After reviewing erotic norms and tolerated transgressions in during the Bismarck era, the chapter examines the consequences of Sudermann’s radical challenge to those norms. Leydecker concludes that the novel’s attempt to outline new norms ultimately takes a conservative turn, thereby broadening the examination of Sudermann’s ambivalent treatment of marriage which was the subject of Leydecker’s Marriage in Divorce in the Plays of Hermann Sudermann (1996).