Sex and Character An Investigation of Fundamental Principles [Hardcover]

Otto Weiningers controversial book Sex and Character, first published in Vienna in 1903, is a prime example of the conflicting discourses central to its time: antisemitism, scientific racism and biologism, misogyny, the cult and crisis of masculinity, psychological introspection versus empiricism, German idealism, the womens movement and the idea of human emancipation, the quest for sexual liberation, and the debates about homosexuality. Combining rational reasoning with irrational outbursts, in the context of todays scholarship, Sex and Character speaks to issues of gender, race, cultural identity, the roots of Nazism, and the intellectual history of modernism and modern European culture. This new translation presents, for the first time, the entire text, including Weiningers extensive appendix with amplifications of the text and bibliographical references, in a reliable English translation, together with a substantial introduction that places the book in its cultural and historical context.

Ladislaus L?b is Emeritus Professor of German at the University of Sussex.

Daniel Steuer is Senior Lecturer in German in the School of Humanities, University of Sussex.

Laura Marcus is Reader in English in the School of Humanities, University of Sussex.

[T]here are not that many great weird books. Sex and Character . . . is one of them. The appearance . . . of a definitive English translation published by Indiana University Press is a major cultural event. . .In short, Weiningers introspective exploration of the cosmic meaning of gender leads him to the depths of the anti-Semitic imagination. Which makes his book a kind of rough guide to the inner world of another Austrian figure who would later leave his mark on the world, Adolf Hitler. Twenty years ago, Gerald Steig, an Austrian writer, called Sex and Character 'the psychological-metaphysical prelude for National Socialism, including its variants.'. .In both fidelity and readability, [L?b's] rendel“6