This essay examines the decline of the sexually ambiguous category of \u201cfriendship.\u201d In the eighteenth century, a friendship discourse flourished in German literature. A male author could publicly declare that he wanted to be another man\u2019s wife. Contrary to quick dismissals today, the sexual implications of this discourse was clear to eighteenth-century readers. But, at the same time, there was a space for plausible deniability. By the middle of the nineteenth-century, however, such ambiguously flowery language was no longer possible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cFreundschaftsd\u00e4mmerung: Johannes M\u00fcller, Sigismund Wiese, Friedrich Ramdohr und Heinrich H\u00f6ssli,\u201d in Erinnern und Wiederentdecken. Tabuisierung und Enttabuisierung der m\u00e4nnlichen und weiblichen Homosexualit\u00e4t in Wissenschaft und Kritik<\/span>, ed. Dirck Linck, Wolfgang Popp, Annette Runte (Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, 1999) 191-218.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This essay examines the decline of the sexually ambiguous category of \u201cfriendship.\u201d In the eighteenth century, a friendship discourse flourished in German literature. A male author could publicly declare that he wanted to be another man\u2019s wife. Contrary to quick …<\/p>\n