Monumental anxieties : homoerotic desire and feminine influence in 19th century U.S. literature / Scott S. Derrick. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Derrick, Scott S., 1953-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Homosexuality and literature--United States--History--19th century.

Homosexuality and literature.

Women and literature--United States--History--19th century.

Women and literature.

American fiction--Men authors--History and criticism.

Masculinity in literature.

Gender identity in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Gay men in literature.

Desire in literature.

Self in literature.

American fiction--Male authors--History and criticism.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 259 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Recent gender-based scholarship on nineteenth-century American literature has established male authors' crucial awareness of the competition from popular women writers. Critical work in gay studies and queer theory has stressed the importance in canonical American literature of homoerotic relations between men, even before "homosexuality" became codified at the end of the century. Scott Derrick draws on these insights to explore an ongoing compositional crisis in which a series of male authors struggle to accommodate identity-threatening desires, and yet consolidate literature as a masculine and heterosexual enterprise."--Jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Authoring the Self: Gender, Identity, and Authorial Self-Construction in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Culture

pt. 1. Purloined Letters: The Fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. 1. Gender and the Scene of Writing: Homophobia, the Feminine, and Narrative in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. 2. Edgar Allan Poe and the Purloined Mother

pt. 2. Circuits of Desire: Authority in the Early and Late Fiction of Henry James. 3. Early Authorizations in Roderick Hudson and The American. 4. Late Authorizations in The Ambassadors and The Wings of the Dove

pt. 3. Ruptured Bodies, Ruptured Tales: Masculine Injury and Transcendence in Turn-of-the-Century U.S. Literature.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-248) and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-8135-8569-4

0-585-11640-7