Author: Marie Gispert, Département d'histoire de l'art (Department of Art History), Université Grenoble Alpes (Grenoble Alpes University) - Academia.edu

Abstract: »In 1924, when Otto Dix’s Der Krieg (War) series was published, his dealer and publisher Karl Nierendorf decided to censor one of the plates: Soldat und Nonne (Vergewaltigung) (Soldier and Nun (Rape)). Considering rape in a political context, both during the First World War and during the French occupation of the Rhine, this essay examines to what extent this image was not simply a response to the violence of the time. Linking it to earlier artworks on a similar subject by Jacques Callot and Francisco Goya, as well as situating it in the context of images featuring the motif by contemporary German artists, it questions the implied eroticism of the figure of the nun. It argues that the sexual aggression that characterizes this plate, like many of the artist’s other works before and after the First World War, signals Dix’s fundamentally misogynistic attitude towards women.« (Source: Bloomsbury Collections)

Contents:

	Rape in a Political Context: From the First World War to the Occupation of the Rhine (p. 194)
	Sources: Inspiration and Distance (p. 196)
	Representing Rape and the Eroticized Nun in Germany (p. 200)
	“All wars are waged over and because of the vulva”39: Dix’s Misogyny and the Circulation of a Motif (p. 204)

Reviews: -

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Germany / Weimar Republic | Art: New Objectivity / Otto Dix | Art: World War I in art / The War (Dix engravings) | Sex and the law: Rape / Wartime sexual violence | War: World War I / War crimes in World War I