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Alternative Histories of the Self - A Cultural History of Sexuality and Secrets, 1762-1917 (Hardcover)
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Alternative Histories of the Self - A Cultural History of Sexuality and Secrets, 1762-1917 (Hardcover)
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Alternative Histories of the Self investigates how people
re-imagined the idea of the unique self in the period from 1762 to
1917. Some used the notion of the unique self to justify their
gender and sexual transgression, but others rejected the notion of
the unique self and instead demanded the sacrifice of the self for
the good of society. The substantial introductory chapter places
these themes in the cultural context of the long nineteenth
century, but the book as a whole represents an alternative method
for studying the self. Instead of focusing on the thoughts of great
thinkers, this book explores how five unusual individuals twisted
conventional ideas of the self as they interpreted their own lives.
These subjects include: * The Chevalier/e d'Eon, a renegade
diplomat who was outed as a woman * Anne Lister, who wrote coded
diaries about her attraction to women * Richard Johnson, who
secretly criticized the empire that he served * James Hinton, a
Victorian doctor who publicly advocated philanthropy and privately
supported polygamy * Edith Ellis, a socialist lesbian who
celebrated the 'abnormal' These five case studies are skilfully
used to explore how the notion of the unique individual was used to
make sense of sexual or gender non-conformity. Yet this queer
reading will go beyond same-sex desire to analyse the issue of
secrets and privacy; for instance, what stigma did men who
practiced or advocated unconventional relationships with women
incur? Finally, Clark ties these unusual lives to the wider
questions of ethics and social justice: did those who questioned
sexual conventions challenge political traditions as well? This is
a highly innovative study that will be of interest to intellectual
historians of modern Britain and Europe, as well as historians of
gender and sexuality.
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