230552 A History of Prostitution (S) (WiSe 2025/2026)

The title of this seminar uses the problematic term ‘prostitution’ because the term ‘sex work’ would be too comprehensive: our topic is not porn actors, femdom professionals, sugar babies, nor strippers or phone- or cybersex workers, even though the people working in these fields earn money by providing sexual services. This seminar will focus specifically on the history and representation of people (mostly women) who have physical sexual intercourse with their clients (often strangers) and receive money from them in return.
As literary and cultural scholars, we are interested in the spectrum of historically contingent discourses of prostitution and the concomitant socio-economic conditions and legislative measures; and we are also interested in literary representation. Prostitution has been called “The oldest profession in the world”; prostitutes have been pitied (and condescended to) as “Fallen Women” and sentimentalised as “Whores with Golden Hearts”. Sometimes writers have turned prostitutes into tragic figures (A. Dumas, La Dame aux Camélias); sometimes fictional prostitutes turn out to have been virgins all along (J. Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman). The geographical focus of this seminar will be Britain and Ireland.