Texts include Frank Wedekind's Buchse der Pandora, Franz Kafka's In the Penal Colony, the films of Monika Treut, Bodo Kirchhoff's plays, Peter Weiss' Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats, Heiner Muller's Herzstuck, the Marquis de Sade's Justine and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus im Pelz, as well as a variety of nonliterary material on beauty pageants, cosmetic surgery, torture, to such gems as Arnold Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding manual. The study juxtaposes literary analyses with insights gained from sociology, social psychology, and art criticism, taking theoretical cues from Michel Foucault, Susan Bordo, and Biddy Martin, among others. ...Wilke reads de Sade's Juliette as forerunner of modem obsessions with sport, hygiene, and video pornography.