Overview

This book scrutinises the production and transnational distribution of sexological knowledge at the turn of the century. The works of three transnationally mobile authors are in the focus: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890/1891) and Teleny (1893) by, and attributed to, Oscar Wilde; ‘The True Story of a Vampire’ (1894) by Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock; and Imre: A Memorandum (1906) by Edward Prime-Stevenson. The textual analysis is governed by references in all four works to Hungarian culture to demonstrate how they conceptualised ‘Hungarianness’ and same-sex desire simultaneously in the light of the new classificatory science of sexualities coming from German-speaking Central Europe. By foregrounding a timely literary angle and a ‘culturalist’ approach, this book offers non-Anglocentric insights, not bound by either language or nationality, to shed new light on the interdisciplinary reading practices of late-Victorian subjects and the ways they contributed to the emergence of fin-de-siècle queer fiction.

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9781032772080

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Reviews

“Zsolt Bojti’s Queer Reading Practices and Sexology in Fin-de-Siècle Literature: Wilde, Stenbock, Prime-Stevenson is a welcome contribution to nineteenth-century studies. Bojti’s re/discovery of the synergies between these thinkers and writers is rich and erudite; and his painstaking investigation, in particular, into the elusive Prime-Stevenson’s life and works is pioneering. Bojti’s archival findings are presented engagingly; and his close readings are revelatory. I’ve learned much from Queer Reading Practices and Sexology. This is the work of a marvellous scholar at the top of his game.” — Tom Ue, FRHistS, Assistant Professor, Cape Breton University, Canada “This book provides scholars and students with a much-needed critical resource on queer literature and sexology at the end of the nineteenth century. It changes the way we think about queer literature’s contribution to fin-de-siècle sexual science, and vice versa; better yet, its bold interdisciplinary analysis pushes us to rethink the confines of period or national literatures—encouraging us to read canonical and non-canonical texts alongside each other in order to gain a richer sense of the modern invention of homosexuality and the polymath reading practices as embraced by our queer Victorian subjects. Queer Reading Practices and Sexology in Fin-de-Siècle Literature poses a significant contribution to literary studies and queer cultural histories alike.” — S. Brooke Cameron, Associate Professor, Queen’s University, Canada “Homosexuality was a neologism coined by a Hungarian, so it is entirely fitting that, at precisely the point it was becoming the word of choice for same-sex attraction, there was a literary fashion for hungarophile/homophile literature. This book gives a lively account of three writers—Wilde, Stenbock, and Prime Stevenson—who deployed Hungarianness as a queer motif on either side of the fin de siècle.” — Douglas Pretsell, Keele University, UK

Author Information

Zsolt Bojti is a senior lecturer in the Department of English Studies of ELTE Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest, Hungary) and is the editor-in-chief of the Department’s scholarly journal, The AnaChronisT. His research focuses on the intersection of nineteenth-century German sexology and the English literary history of sexuality at the turn of the century.

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