Wh the creasg impact of the gay rights movement and acceptance of gays mastream society, gay studi and gay lerature are emergg as rpected fields. Defg gay lerature is sometim difficult, given the equent vague and subtle referenc to gay characters or them found works. Not all gay lerature als specifilly wh sex;…
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The Cambridge History of Gay and Lbian Lerature - November 2014 * homosexuality in gothic literature *
In 1895, Osr Wil was nvicted of homosexualy bee of his Gothic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. He plead that homosexualy was “the love that dar not speak s name. Gothic lerature emerged the midst of a seri of chang the way homosexualy was perceived and 'classed' English society.
At the end of the neteenth century, the gothic novel veloped a way that reflected Victorian anxieti ncerng human sexualy. Commonly referred to as the f siècle, this perd was a time when England was rapidly progrsg technologilly, scientifilly, and socially. Authors of gothic fictn began to exprs societal and cultural anxieti ncerng the velopments—as well as the very future of England—by, g trop, such as supernatural subjects, monstro characters, and ighteng plots. For example, the ntroversial role of homosexualy Brish society began to make s way to gothic novels. Authors cludg Osr Wil, Bram Stoker, and Robert Louis Stevenson—some of whom stggled wh their own sexual orientatns—enavored to create a voice for the ostracized homosexual fictn. The lerary reprentatns of same-sex sire ntributed to the awarens of and the perpetuatn of stereotyp for gay men. The morn stereotype of the “homosexual” gaed notoriety as reprentatns of same-sex relatnships emerged and as psychologil discsns attempted to expla the and treatments for such an ostensible “abnormaly” durg the perd. This ntroversial topic ncerng human sexualy was challenged by Christian valu that created engraed social attus about sexualy and moraly. Homosexualy beme a heightened issue of ntentn durg this perd when Osr Wil published his homoerotic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), and was subsequently arrted for his own homosexualy, which was outlawed at the time England. In Chapter One, I show how Wil packs his text wh encrypted homoerotic them that reflect his personal inty, mock societal prejudic about human sexualy, and warn agast bld submissn to socially accepted valu. Through genr and sexualy studi and queer readgs of Wil’s work, I reveal that Dorian Gray emerg as a groundbreakg text that fi social norms and supports emergg psychologil studi of human sexual orientatn, such as Havelock Ellis’s Sexual Inversn (1897). In Chapter Two, I e Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) to expla how the supernatural elements of the gothic were a mechanism for monizg the homosexual and characterizg gays as “other” a society that rejects and punish queerns. By evaluatg Stoker’s own ambiguo sexualy alongsi his generally homophobic novel, I show how Eve Kosofksy Sedgwick’s ia of “homosexual panic” helps to expla the drivg force supprsg the emergg homosexual durg the age. In this way, Stoker’s homophobic novel is both a personal way of nyg his own sexualy and his means of * homosexuality in gothic literature *
In the mid-eighteenth century parliament produced legislatn agast homosexualy, while at the same time, a distct homosexual subculture was on the rise. By the neteenth century, while the English aristocracy was losg ground as a 'normative' social force, homosexual men were creasgly st a stereotypilly 'aristocratic' role. Meanwhile the lower and middle class, homophobia was on the rise, along wh the fear of anythg outsi what was nsired the proper English norm.
Jt as the Gothic mo targeted (and flated) the lower/middle class English rear's anxieti about the French, Europe, Catholicism, licentns, Jews, immigrants, aristocrats, and any other type of "other, " enuraged (and profed by) their creasg homophobia.
Other scholars, such as Richard Dyer "Children of the Night" argue that the Gothic reprents homosexuals the form of monsters and the Gothic other; they threaten the hetero-normative society and therefore mt be expunged. Dyer likens the disvery of Dracula as a vampire and his ath to the disvery of the homosexual and the expurgatn of homosexualy.
* homosexuality in gothic literature *
Perhaps the most pellg wrg on this subject is Eve Sedgwick's Between Men: English Lerature and Male Homosocial Dire.
Givg specific exampl of the 'unspeakable' the Gothic, Sedgwick argu that acted as an 'electrified barrier' between class, between sexual choic, and between generatns, flatg, explog, or illumatg the homophobia of the rear pendg on the rear's inty.