Theodora Becker, “Dialektik der Hure. Über die (Un-)Verfügbarkeit von Prostitution und Sexarbeit”/”Dialectic of the Harlot. On the (Un)availability of Prostitution and Sex Work”
Thursday, 12 March 2026
20:00 CET
Red Bar
Volkstheater Wien
Arthur-Schnitzler-Platz 1
1070 Wien Austria
Welcome: Burkhardt Wolf
Moderator: Szilvia Gellai
Comment: Undine de Rivière
Sponsored by:
Global Mosse Lecture Series
Volkstheater Wien
Stadt Wien
Universität Wien
Lecture Series Theme: Verfügbarkeit/Availability
Lecture Series Description: Als ökonomisches und politisches Problem betrifft ›Verfügbarkeit‹ heute nicht mehr nur die Bereitstellung basaler Ressourcen im Sinne von Gesundheit, Bildung oder Ernährung. Die Verfügbarmachung von allem und jedem scheint zur Leitlinie des Regierens geworden. Denn als entscheidend gilt nunmehr der ungehinderte Zugriff auf Rohstoffe, die prompte Lieferung von Waren, die bequeme Erreichbarkeit von Orten, die dauernde Zugänglichkeit von Information – und die Disposition über Personen, über ihre Arbeitskraft ebenso wie ihre Wünsche. Doch ist es nicht gerade Unverfügbarkeit, an der sich Autonomie, vor allem aber das Politische zu bewähren hat? Und das Nicht-Disponible, worauf letztlich die Wertbildung und vor allem das Wünschen zielt? Die Vienna Mosse Lectures erkunden im Sommer 2026 die Frage der (Un-)Verfügbarkeit mit Blick auf unterschiedlichste Schauplätze: auf das umkämpfte Feld der Prostitution und Sexarbeit; auf die Arena politischer Teilhabe in der heutigen ›Plattform-Demokratie‹; auf die Sphäre einer Kunst, die sich zusehends autoritärer Zugriffe zu erwehren hat; und auf jene fiktionale Wirklichkeit, die zur Domäne künstlicher Intelligenz zu werden droht.
Burkhardt Wolf is a Professor of Modern German Literature (with a special focus on literary and media theory) at the University of Vienna. He is the principal applicant for the ongoing international WEAVE research project “Bureaugraphie: Administration After the Age of Bureaucracy.” His research focuses on the history of discourse on violence, economics, and governmentality; the poetics of knowledge of affect; the cultural and media history of seafaring, and the cultural techniques and literary history of administration. In addition to positions at Humboldt University in Berlin and a multi-year Heisenberg Fellowship from the DFG, his academic career has included visiting professorships in Berlin, Munich, Santa Barbara, Bloomington, Beijing, and Berkeley.
Theodora Becker studied philosophy, political science, and cultural studies in Berlin. At the Freie Universität Berlin she is working on her doctorate on the relationship between bourgeois society and prostitution and is investigating how therein prostitution becomes work although not being regarded as such. She was actively involved in the association HYDRA e. V., which is committed to improving living conditions of prostitutes, campaigning for the decriminalizing of sex work and against discrimination.
Szilvia Gellai was a fellow in the LOEWE research cluster “Architectures of Order” during the winter semester of 2020/2021. As part of her fellowship, she was exploring the metaphor of the glass house and other related transparent enclosures used by 20th century female writers (Hilda ‘H.D.’ Doolittle, Anaïs Nin, Sylvia Plath, Marlen Haushofer, Margaret Atwood, Angela Krauss, among others). Since March 2020, Szilvia Gellai has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of German Studies at the University of Vienna, where she has been working at the intersection of literary, media, and cultural studies. She previously worked at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. She received her PhD there in 2017 after completing a study on “Network Poetics in Contemporary Literature.” She studied fine arts at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and German language and literature at Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest. In 2007/2008, she spent time at the Humboldt University in Berlin as an Erasmus and DAAD scholarship holder.
