Family, Intercategorical Complexity, and Kleist's Die Verlobung in St. Domingo

Abstract

Scholars typically single out race to understand how inequality is enacted in Heinrich von Kleist's Die Verlobung in St. Domingo (1811). As an alternative, this article proposes that an intersectional approach helps us analyze the complicated configurations of power at work in Kleist's novella. The characters in this work are constituted by complex categories, identifications, and affiliations that mutually inform each other. By investigating how social standing, national origin, sexuality, and age permeate understandings of racialized male gender, female solidarity, and whiteness, this interpretation suggests that intersectional analysis more adequately captures how dominance and resistance are depicted in Kleist's work.