Henry James and Queer Filiation: Hardened Bachelors of the Edwardian Era

Description

This study challenges the notion that closeted secrecy was a necessary part of social life for gay men living in the shadow of the trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde. It reconstructs a surprisingly open network of queer filiation in which Henry James occupied a central place. The lives of its satellite figures — most now forgotten or unknown — offer even more suggestive evidence of some of the countervailing forms of social practice that could survive even in that hostile era. If these men enjoyed such exemption largely because of the prerogatives of class privilege, their relative freedom was nevertheless a visible rebuke to the reductive stereotypes of homosexuality that circulated and were reinforced in the culture of the period. This book will be of particular interest to scholars of Henry James and queer studies, readers of late Victorian and modern literature, and those interested in the history and social construction of gender roles. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Lover … of the Fine Amenities (Michael Anesko)....Pages 1-12 An American Who Loved England (Michael Anesko)....Pages 13-27 The “Emmetry” (Michael Anesko)....Pages 29-35 “The Baby” (Michael Anesko)....Pages 37-42 Fast & Vicious? (Michael Anesko)....Pages 43-50 Das Land ohne Musik (Michael Anesko)....Pages 51-56 A Network of Repressions (Michael Anesko)....Pages 57-65 “Arising from Dreams of Thee” (Michael Anesko)....Pages 67-74 Immortal Youth (Michael Anesko)....Pages 75-80 Within the Rim (Michael Anesko)....Pages 81-88 “Keeping House with a Stranger” (Michael Anesko)....Pages 89-93 The Jamesian Condom (Michael Anesko)....Pages 95-102 Breaches (Michael Anesko)....Pages 103-105 Back Matter ....Pages 107-111