A Shift in the Portrayal and Reception of Homosexuality from the Victorian to the Modern Period

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Darby Dyer

A Shift in the Portrayal and Reception of Homosexuality from the Victorian to the Modern Period

Darby Dyer

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Hardback

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English

Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
28 January 2025

Literature: history & criticism; Gender studies: transsexuals & hermaphroditism; Gay & Lesbian studies

A Shift in the Portrayal and Reception of Homosexuality from the Victorian to the Modern Period explores how the reception of homosexuality in literature evolved and morphed greatly from the late 19th century to the 20th century and how the gender of the author played a particularly import role. Victorian society scorned and punished gay men to a harsher degree due to the subversive, taboo, and “emasculating” nature of male homosexuality, as evident in the reception of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. In contrast, the Modern period saw a positive portrayal and reception of homosexuality in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Modern society as well as Victorian society accepted same-sex female relationships under the assumption that women were incapable of engaging in sexual acts—an assumption influenced by Queen Victoria. Thus, on the surface, both societies tolerated female homosexuality in literature. However, this distorted tolerance was a limiting and silencing force. Darby Dyer compares the homosexuality in the works and lives of Wilde and Woolf to other authors during their time periods to address how far queer representation has come in literature and other arts. She concludes with a call to action that the fight is not over.

By: Darby Dyer
Imprint: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781666950243
ISBN 10: 1666950246
Pages: 114
Publication Date: 28 January 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Chapter One Homosexuality Preceding and During the Victorian Era Chapter Two Queering The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapter Three Homosexuality in Other Victorian and Nineteenth-Century Texts Chapter Four The Modern Period and Homosexuality Chapter Five Queering Mrs. Dalloway Chapter Six Homosexuality in Other Modern Texts Chapter Seven Closing Thoughts and Consideration of Queer Media

Darby Dyer is adjunct English professor at Texas Woman’s University.

Reviews for A Shift in the Portrayal and Reception of Homosexuality from the Victorian to the Modern Period

""Darby Dyer's A Shift in the Portrayal and Reception of Homosexuality from the Victorian to the Modern Period is a well sourced, unique and interesting analysis of the role of gender, sexuality, culture, and law in these contiguous eras. By exploring the contrasting experiences of queer writers, Oscar Wilde and Virgina Woolf, as individuals, as authors in the public awareness (with a particular focus on The Picture of Dorian Gray and Mrs. Dalloway), and as subjects of the laws and expectations of their times, Dyer probes the gaps between their experiences to posit arguments regarding the repercussions of queer identity and ways in which it shifted (and was sometimes erased) across time and socio-legal perceptions of gender."" --Rita Costello, McNeese State University