Secret Selves: Confession and Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Autobiography
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.41 (641 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 080784702X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 270 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-03-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A Customer said Victorian Eraas it isnot as perceived. Bravo to Oliver Buckton for unmasking the stuffy conventions of Victorian life and revealing the true erotic nature of this seemingly reserved society. Dr. Buckton, with a bit of wit and wry humor offers up to the the reader the unmasking of such writers as Forster and Carpenter, yet it is his nonjudgemental style and flair for literary analysis that makes this book a
Focusing on the representation of same-sex desire in Victorian autobiographical writing, Oliver Buckton offers significant new readings of works by some of the most influential figures in late-nineteenth-century literature and culture. Forster. He challenges the conventional view of secrecy as the suppression of information, instead using the term to suggest an oscillation between authorial self-disclosure and silence or reserve--a strategy for arousing the reader's interest and establishing a relation based on shared knowledge while deferring or displacing the revelation of potentially incriminating and scandalous desires. Though theirdisclosures of same-sex desire jeopardized the cultural privilege granted these writers by Victorian codes of authorship and masculinity, their use of secrecy, Buckton shows, allowed them to protect themselves from Victorian stigma and to challenge prevailing constructions of sexual identity.Originally published in 1998.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. By examining the "confessional" elements of these writings, Buckton brings "secrecy" into focus as a central and productive component of autobiographical discourse. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in af
In Secret Selves: Confession and Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Autobiography, Oliver S. Those Victorians. Buckton argues that literary "secrecy"--the very act of holding back information in a novel or memoir--was a primary and provocative indicator of Victorian homosexuality. For decades the prevailing presumption was that mid- to late-19th-century British sexuality was completely repressed, or at least hidden by shame-filled secrecy. Secret Selves promises new, invigorating thinking about gay writing and history,