SOURCE: Hansen, Miriam. “Introduction.” New German Critique, no. 49 (winter 1990): 3-10.

In the following essay, Hansen discusses Kluge's treatment of sexuality and sexual politics in his short fiction and novels.

In the United States, the critical debate on Alexander Kluge's work has only just begun, thanks to a comprehensive retrospective of his films organized by Stuart Liebman and sponsored by the Goethe Institute and Anthology Film Archives. A retrospective, Kluge might say, is a bit like an inventory of boxes left behind in the basement after one has moved to another city—the boxes still contain some useful things, though one's current life is elsewhere. In Kluge's case in particular, the relationship between author and oeuvre is a problematic one. Compared to the main body of the so-called New German Cinema, his films have most persistently refused a status as “works” which could be circulated and canonized or, for...