Henry James and Queer Filiation Hardened Bachelors of the Edwardian
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 o
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Henry James and Queer Filiation
Michael Anesko
Henry James and Queer Filiation Hardened Bachelors of the Edwardian Era
Michael Anesko Pennsylvania State University State College, PA, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-94537-8 ISBN 978-3-319-94538-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94538-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946167 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Pattern adapted from an Indian cotton print produced in the 19th century Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is for Ed, who encouraged me to embrace it.
Preface
At least since the appearance of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s provocative interpretation of “The Beast in the Jungle,” students of Henry James have been inclined to assume that, for gay men who lived in the shadow of the trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, closeted secrecy would be a strategic necessity of social life, conditioned by what she vigorously defines as “an endemic and ineradicable state of . . . male homosexual panic” that became the “normal condition” for men of the Edwardian era and beyond.1 While the criminalization of homosexual behavior that was codified at the end of the nineteenth century in Britain and the USA undoubtedly encouraged regimes of camouflage and repression among those vulnerable to prosecution, such responses were far from universal. Hardened Bachelors reconstructs a surprisingly open network of queer filiation in which James occupied a central place. But the lives of its satellite figures—most now forgotten or unknown—offer even more suggestive evidence of some of the countervailing forms
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