Oscar Wilde Prefigured : Queer Fashioning and British Caricature, 1750-1900

“I do not say you are it, but you look it, and you pose at it, which is just as bad,” Lord Queensbury challenged Oscar Wilde in the courtroom—which erupted in laughter—accusing Wilde of posing as a sodomite. What was so terrible about __posing__ as a sodomite, and why was Queensbury’s horror greeted with such amusement? In __Oscar Wilde Prefigured__, Dominic Janes suggests that what divided the two sides in this case was not so much the question of whether Wilde was or was not a sodomite, but whether or not it mattered that people could __appear__ to be sodomites. For many, intimations of sodomy were simply a part of the amusing spectacle of sophisticated life. __Oscar Wilde Prefigured__ is a study of the prehistory of this “queer moment” in 1895. Janes explores the complex ways in which men who desired sex with men in Britain had expressed such interests through clothing, style, and deportment since the mid-eighteenth century. He supplements the well-established narrative of the inscription of sodomitical acts into a homosexual label and identity at the end of the nineteenth century by teasing out the means by which same-sex desires could be signaled through visual display in Georgian and Victorian Britain. Wilde, it turns out, is not the starting point for public queer figuration. He is the pivot by which Georgian figures and twentieth-century camp stereotypes meet. Drawing on the mutually reinforcing phenomena of dandyism and caricature of alleged effeminates, Janes examines a wide range of images drawn from theater, fashion, and the popular press to reveal new dimensions of identity politics, gender performance, and queer culture. "'I do not say you are it, but you look it, and you pose at it, which is just as bad,' Lord Queensbury challenged Oscar Wilde in the courtroom which erupted in laughter accusing Wilde of posing as a sodomite. What was so terrible about posing as a sodomite, and why was Queensbury's horror greeted with such amusement? In Oscar Wilde Prefigured, Dominic Janes suggests that what divided the two sides in this case was not so much the question of whether Wilde was or was not a sodomite, but whether or not it mattered that people could appear to be sodomites. For many, intimations of sodomy were simply a part of the amusing spectacle of sophisticated life. Oscar Wilde Prefigured is a study of the prehistory of this "queer moment" in 1895. Janes explores the complex ways in which men who desired sex with men in Britain had expressed such interests through clothing, style, and deportment since the mid-eighteenth century. He supplements the well-established narrative of the inscription of sodomitical acts into a homosexual label and identity at the end of the nineteenth century by teasing out the means by which same-sex desires could be signaled through visual display in Georgian and Victorian Britain"-- That there is a queeras opposed to merely homosexualhistory before Oscar Wilde will come as news to many in the sexuality studies field. Oscar Wilde Prefigured. It turns out that there is indeed a history of queerness, and that is originated in the early 18th century, coming to a head, as it were, by the end of the 19th. Dominic Janes draws on lots of new historical material, especially parodies and stereotypes in caricatures of sodomy and effeminacy. Front and center, then, are the 18th-century macaronies and mollies and men of feeling, the Regency dandies, and Victorian aesthetes. Visual display become a powerful historical tableau, generating a long history of queerness/homosexuality via caricatures of allegedly effeminate types. Images of effeminacy became a cultural field in which same-sex desire could be expressed. Wilde, then, was not the starting-point of public gay figures, but the endpoint. Wilde, in turn, is the pivot for connecting the Georgian figures to 20th-century stereotypes of camp (think Liberace), using images drawn from theater, fashion, and popular press to reveal new dimensions of identity politics and queer culture." Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 14 1. Introduction......Page 16 Part One: “Dammee Sammy you’r a sweet pretty creature”......Page 38 2. Macaronis......Page 40 3. Men of Feeling......Page 70 4. The Later Eighteenth Century: Conclusions......Page 101 Part Two: “Corps de beaux”......Page 110 5. Regency Dandies......Page 112 6. Byronists......Page 144 7. The Earlier Nineteenth Century: Conclusions......Page 173 Part Three: “An unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort”......Page 184 8. Aesthetes......Page 186 9. New Men......Page 206 10. The Later Nineteenth Century: Conclusions......Page 242 References......Page 252 Index......Page 284