Transgressing the Linguistic Domain: The Transformative Power of Images in Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexological Work

Transgender individuals have historically faced exclusion from social research, a systemic issue rooted in a lack of historical information. However, a comprehensive understanding of contemporary transness necessitates examining its history. In this article, I address early forms of visual represent...

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Main Author: Robin Saalfeld
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: FQS 2023-05-01
Series:Forum: Qualitative Social Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/3975
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author Robin Saalfeld
author_facet Robin Saalfeld
author_sort Robin Saalfeld
collection DOAJ
description Transgender individuals have historically faced exclusion from social research, a systemic issue rooted in a lack of historical information. However, a comprehensive understanding of contemporary transness necessitates examining its history. In this article, I address early forms of visual representation of transness by focusing on HIRSCHFELD's sexological work on intermediate sex categories at the beginning of the 20th century. The objective of this article is twofold. Firstly, I examine visual methods derived from discourse analysis and grounded theory methodology for analyzing and interpreting images as cultural documents. Secondly, I apply a discourse-analytical research perspective and follow suggestions made by CLARKE (2005) to explore the influence of images on the development of discourse on transness. By demonstrating the diverse meanings conveyed through HIRSCHFELD's image use, which sometimes differ significantly from his written work, I illustrate that images have the potential to shape and transform social knowledge production beyond the linguistic domain. I conclude with suggestions for advancing methods in the field of visual sociology.
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spelling doaj.art-94d56b23ef104ab9ab129fdf5fdd9fe62023-06-01T07:44:22ZdeuFQSForum: Qualitative Social Research1438-56272023-05-0124210.17169/fqs-24.2.3975Transgressing the Linguistic Domain: The Transformative Power of Images in Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexological WorkRobin Saalfeld0Friedrich-Schiller-Universität JenaTransgender individuals have historically faced exclusion from social research, a systemic issue rooted in a lack of historical information. However, a comprehensive understanding of contemporary transness necessitates examining its history. In this article, I address early forms of visual representation of transness by focusing on HIRSCHFELD's sexological work on intermediate sex categories at the beginning of the 20th century. The objective of this article is twofold. Firstly, I examine visual methods derived from discourse analysis and grounded theory methodology for analyzing and interpreting images as cultural documents. Secondly, I apply a discourse-analytical research perspective and follow suggestions made by CLARKE (2005) to explore the influence of images on the development of discourse on transness. By demonstrating the diverse meanings conveyed through HIRSCHFELD's image use, which sometimes differ significantly from his written work, I illustrate that images have the potential to shape and transform social knowledge production beyond the linguistic domain. I conclude with suggestions for advancing methods in the field of visual sociology. https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/3975visual analysisvisual sociologyvisual datagrounded theory methodologydiscourse analysistransgender
spellingShingle Robin Saalfeld
Transgressing the Linguistic Domain: The Transformative Power of Images in Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexological Work
Forum: Qualitative Social Research
visual analysis
visual sociology
visual data
grounded theory methodology
discourse analysis
transgender
title Transgressing the Linguistic Domain: The Transformative Power of Images in Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexological Work
title_full Transgressing the Linguistic Domain: The Transformative Power of Images in Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexological Work
title_fullStr Transgressing the Linguistic Domain: The Transformative Power of Images in Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexological Work
title_full_unstemmed Transgressing the Linguistic Domain: The Transformative Power of Images in Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexological Work
title_short Transgressing the Linguistic Domain: The Transformative Power of Images in Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexological Work
title_sort transgressing the linguistic domain the transformative power of images in magnus hirschfeld s sexological work
topic visual analysis
visual sociology
visual data
grounded theory methodology
discourse analysis
transgender
url https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/3975
work_keys_str_mv AT robinsaalfeld transgressingthelinguisticdomainthetransformativepowerofimagesinmagnushirschfeldssexologicalwork