Otto Rank's Homosexuelle Neigungen [Homosexual Leanings] (critical edition and translation)
Academic
Birgit Lang
School of Languages and Linguistics
Intern
Annisa Sabrina Hartoto
School of Social and Political Sciences
Project description
The aim of this project was to make available the incomplete book-length manuscript Über den Ausdruck homosexueller Neigungen in Mythos und Dichtung (On the homosexual leanings in myth and literature) by Freud-disciple Otto Rank (1884–1939) in an open access form, showcasing photos of the manuscript, a transcription of the original text as well as its translation into English. The book-length manuscript analyses a range of canonical texts of world literature (from Shakespeare to Heinrich von Kleist) and mythology more generally to reveal the unconscious role of homosexual desires in the development of characters and plots. The manuscript is a composite of the original version written by Rank in 1906 in response to Freud’s 1905 Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie (Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality) and of a second draft that Rank worked on at a later stage of his life, possibly after his emigration to New York. It has so far has remained hidden in Rank’s Papers held in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York. The internship focused on text-encoding of the manuscript in preparation for its online publication.
Want to get involved with the Digital Studio internship program? We welcome applications from research students to undertake the internship, and from academics and external organisations interested in hosting an internship and supervising an intern.