Fraternity of the Estranged , livre ebook

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108 pages

English

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Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, and a third, Havelock Ellis. At this time, the study of homosexuality was limited almost exclusively to the European continent. Books that were circulated freely in Europe were hardly known in England, and men who loved men were pushed to the margins of a society where masculinity was strenuously upheld.Carpenter and Symonds' story and their brave stand against persecution is largely forgotten, but in such a hostile environment, their publications were highly significant. They were the first English contributions to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and, more importantly, opened the long struggle for the legal recognition of same-sex love that was finally achieved in 1967.The Fraternity of the Estranged will speak principally to the LGBT community and, in a time more accepting of sexual diversity, to a wider readership. It will also appeal to readers interested in history as it recounts what it was like to be homosexual in late-Victorian England.

Sujets

Sociologie, société et politique

Legal history

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	28 mars 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781788034876
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0300€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2018 Brian Anderson
The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Cover Artwork credit to Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929), The Critics, with acknowledgment to the Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum for permission to reproduce it.

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Author’s Note
Although this book resonates with contemporary academic research, in the fiftieth year since the decriminalisation in England and Wales of sexual relations between men in private, it is intended to speak principally to the LGBT community and, in a time more accepting of sexual diversity, to a wider readership. For many, Carpenter and Symonds remain dead to the world: their brave stand against persecution and intolerance not widely known. This narrative recounts the writing of important books, but it also offers a glimpse of what it was like to be homosexual in late-Victorian England.
Contents
Introduction

Serendipity
My Best Work, My Least Presentable
A Fateful Collaboration
A Defence of Erotic Life
Born Lovers of their Own Sex
A Literary Inquisition
A Wicked, Scandalous and Obscene Book
A Stifled Anachronism
Eros, the Great Leveller
The Fraternity of the Estranged
Postscripts

Bibliography
Notes
Introduction
J uly 2017 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the decriminalisation in England and Wales of sex between two men in private. The law that had made such relations a crime had been passed in 1885, and remained in place for 82 years. But this restriction on same-sex love did not go unchallenged: between 1891 and 1908 three books appeared in England on homosexuality and the rights of homosexual persons. They were written by two homosexual men, Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, and a third, Havelock Ellis. Setting out in life as young university dons, Carpenter and Symonds seemed the least likely of individuals to court notoriety as defenders of homosexuality, whilst the shy and retiring Ellis was a most improbable student of sex.
At the time, the study of what was then called ‘ sexual inversion’ was the almost exclusive preserve of writers on the European continent. Books on homosexuality that circulated freely there were hardly known in England, where, apart from its occasional discussion in medical journals, anything published on the subject was liable to be prosecuted for obscenity. Men who loved men were pushed to the margins, in a society where masculinity was strenuously upheld. In such a hostile environment, the appearance of these publications was highly significant. They were the first English contributions to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and at the same time opened the long fight for the legal recognition of same-sex love that was finally won in 1967.
The special circumstances under which these books came to be written has not before been comprehensively documented. Here, through a combination of history, biography and textual analysis, the full story of the individuals who opposed this legislation and argued for homosexual equality is told. And, as the hazardous progress of these books towards publication is recounted, what was written is critically examined.
Chance pervades this narrative at every level. If certain events had not combined with the twists and turns of coincidence and circumstance, it is highly unlikely that any of these ground-breaking books would even have been conceived, let alone published. There would be nothing to tell if Carpenter had not discovered the homoerotic poetry of Walt Whitman at a time when he was deeply troubled by his homosexuality. Equally, if, after a crisis of belief, he had been able to resign as an Anglican curate but remain at his Cambridge college. When this was denied him, he became a peripatetic lecturer in the industrial towns of northern England, which radicalised him and brought him into contact with Ellis.
Similarly, if Symonds had not been forced to leave his Oxford college after a homosexual scandal, and had not also read Whitman at a time of crisis over his homosexuality. And if he had not abandoned the study of law for literary criticism, he would not have been approached by Ellis to contribute to a series of books that he was editing. In turn, this led to their collaboration in the writing of what turned out to be a fateful book on homosexuality.
Further, this story could not be told if the adolescent Ellis had not been taken to Australia by his sea captain father. Alone in the outback, where books were his only consolation, by chance he came across James Hinton’s Life in Nature , 1 and discovered that, at about his own age, he had studied medicine. His future being unclear to him, in a flash he decided that he too would become a doctor. Perplexed by his sexual awakening, precociously he resolved to make the study of sex his vocation. But, once back in England, the cost of a medical education thwarted his ambition, until “the gift of Heaven, without any effort of mine, fell miraculously upon me”. The Hintons, who had befriended him, loaned him £200, without which the life that he had mapped out for himself would have been “forever closed and my whole life-course altered”. 2
Finally, there is a fourth individual in this story, without whose intervention the history of homosexual law reform in England may have taken an entirely different path. In 1885, Henry Labouchère, the Member of Parliament for Northampton, succeeded in having a five line clause inserted into a piece of legislation that had nothing to do with sex between two men. It was its inclusion in the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act that made any intimate behaviour between men, whether in public or in private, potentially a criminal act. It would ensnare countless individuals before it was revised in 1967.
The iconoclastic poet Walt Whitman was the dominant presence in the lives of Carpenter and Symonds. He is woven into this story. In fear of the rigid taboo against the physical expression of their homosexuality, early in life both adopted a romanticised form of male-loving: an aesthetic idealization of their erotic instincts. Whitman’s fervent espousal of male comradeship sanctioned the expression of their sexual natures but, more importantly, the empowerment to write about homosexuality flowed directly from him. Of discovering Whitman, Carpenter recalled: “I find it difficult to imagine what my life would have been without it”. 3 And Symonds would write, barely a month before Whitman’s death, “You do not know, & I can never tell anyone, what Whitman has been to me”. 4 Whitman was also a significant figure for Ellis, who placed him among the new breed of realist writers of his day. He was given a whole chapter in his first book, The New Spirit , in which he sought to capture the ethos of his times, expressed in the writing of leading literary personalities. Whitman was also the subject of Symonds’s first exchange with Ellis on homosexuality, and it was through the chance discovery of Carpenter’s Whitmanesque long prose poem Towards Democracy 5 that Ellis first came to know him.
It was when Symonds’s friendship with Ellis grew, that he asked him if he would take a book by him on homosexuality, for a series of scientific texts then under his editorship. He had written and privately circulated two monographs on homosexuality, which were outcomes of personal and contemporary events in his life. Both were defences of homosexuality, but in origination and purpose were essentially different. The first, which is referred to throughout as the Greek Problem, 6 was the product of a Platonising phase in his life, which lasted from adolescence until his late twenties. It was an examination of the practice of paederasties , of boy-love, found in the refined civilisations of the ancient Greek city states. The second, referred to as the Modern Problem, 7 was a direct outcome of the passing of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. Under the Offences against the Person Act of 1861, the crime of buggery, if no longer a capital offence, remained in place, but at the instigation of Labouchère, the 1885 Act introduced the misdemeanour of ‘gross indecency’ between male persons. Symonds wrote the Modern Problem to contest this legislation, by advancing a case for the decriminalisation of homosexual acts between consenting adults that took place in private. It was a political manifesto: the first to fully address the plight of homosexuals in England.
When the cautious Ellis prevaricated over taking a book on homosexuality for his series, considering it too risky, Symonds, out of the blue, suggested that they might write a book together on the subject. His approach was timely, as unbeknown to him, Ellis was preparing to make the study of human sexuality his life’s work. But of much more significance, he was equally unaware that, at this very time,