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. Combining original
research, careful historical analysis, and contemporary theories of
autobiography, gender, and sexual identity, he provides nuanced
studies of confessional narratives by Edward Carpenter, John Henry
Newman, John Addington Symonds, Oscar Wilde, and, in an epilogue,
E. M. Forster.
By examining the "confessional" elements of these writings, Buckton
brings "secrecy" into focus as a central and productive component
of autobiographical discourse. 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 their
disclosures 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.
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