Picturing the Closet

Male Secrecy and Homosexual Visibility in Britain
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-19-020563-8
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 183 mm x 260 mm, Gewicht: 855 g

To what extent did people think they could identify an 'obvious' sodomite before the construction of the homosexual as a type of person during the latter part of the nineteenth century? What role did secrecy and denial play in relation to the visual expression of same-sex desire before the term 'the closet' came into widespread use in the latter part of the twentieth century? And what, therefore, did sodomites/homosexuals/gays/queers look like in Britain in 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000? Could they be spotted mincing down the street? Or were such as these just the flamboyant few whose presence conveniently drew attention away from the many others who wanted to appear 'normal'? These issues are not peripheral to the struggle of the last several decades for individual self-determination and self-expression. It was this set of cultural constructions that the pioneering writer Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (1950-2009) attacked in her book Epistemology of the Closet as representing 'the defining structure for gay oppression in this century'. This book represents a visual culture counterpart to Sedgwick's study and aims, through the use of a series of interdisciplinary case-studies, to explore both the pre-history of the closet since the eighteenth century and its evolution through to the present day. Chapters explore key moments and issues within the British cultural experience and make pioneering use of a wide range of source materials ranging from art to fashion, literature, philosophy, theology, film and archival records.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Janes, Dominic

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Ch. 1, Introduction: Picturing the Closet

- Part One

- Ch. 2, Hogarth's Panic

- Ch. 3, Burke's Solution

- Ch. 4, The Decorative and the Damned

- Part Two

- Ch. 5, Athletics and Aesthetics

- Ch. 6, Strachey in Earnest

- Ch. 7, Expulsion

- Part Three

- Ch. 8, Criminal Practices

- Ch. 9, The Unliberated

- Ch. 10, After the Outrage

- Bibliography

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dominic Janes is Senior Lecturer in History of Art and Culture at Birkbeck, University of London. His other books include Victorian Reformation: The Fight Over Idolatry in the Church of England and God and Gold in Late Antiquity.