Kathleen Canning, "Aftermaths and Future Visions: Gender and the Meaning of Revolution in Germany 1918-19"

Kathleen Canning, University of Michigan, will give the lecture "Aftermaths and Future Visions: Gender and the Meaning of Revolution in Germany 1918-19" for our Thursday lecture series, February 2, 2012.

Historical writing on the German revolutions of 1918-19 is usually framed by notions of German continuities, often overlooking the significance of revolution as an immediate aftermath of war and defeat and as a moment in which the future of governance, political representation and gender was re-imagined. My paper takes a critical approach to the tropes of restoration and reordering usually associated with the founding of the Weimar Republic, exploring instead the semantic and symbolic breaks that accompanied revolution and fostered new imaginaries of citizenship and belonging.