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"THE WELL OF LONELINESS."   Term Paper ID:29760 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analysis of Radclyffe Hall's 1928 novel.... More...

5 Pages / 1125 Words 4 sources, 11 Citations, MLA Format $20.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Analysis of Radclyffe Hall's 1928 novel. Consequences of enacting a homosexual identity in an Anglo-European culture as the dramatic conflict of the narrative. Issues of homophobia, presumption of heterosexual identity, gender. Criticism of novel for its lesbian marginalization. Legal and literary conflict of the novel at time of its publication. Paper Introduction: The emergence of feminist criticism and women's studies since the 1960s has been affected in more recent decades by the related but nonetheless distinctive disciplines of gender studies and queer theory. How feminist theory links with gender studies can be seen in Sedgwick's point that, whatever else feminist efforts to enlarge the Western canon to include women's texts have done, in significant part they have been due to "the scarifying coarseness and visibility with which women and men are, in most if not all societies, distinguished . . . from one another" (Sedgwick 1483). Sedgwick cites the problems in applying the feminist canonic "model" "to that very differently structured though closely related form of oppression, modern homophobia" (1483). She identifies in much critical discourse "a possible though intensively proscribed homosexual identity in Euro-Ameri Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Twentieth Century Literature 4 (Winter 1994): 434-46 .Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Thereare frequent allusions to Stephen's facial scar, typical of the lore ofRomanticism and aristocratic dueling and consistent with her fencing skill.Her anxiety about her parents' anxiety for her, her restrained response toAnna's overt contempt, even her sudden homoerotic clarity at the verymoment of Martin's youthful heterosexual approach--all of these she bearswith emotional poise. Works CitedHall, Radclyffe. The emergence of feminist criticism and women's studies since the196 s has been affected in more recent decades by the related butnonetheless distinctive disciplines of gender studies and queer theory. "The Well of Loneliness, or the Gospel According to Radclyffe Hall." Journal of Homosexuality 33 (June-July 1997): 163-186.Parkes, Adam. Stephen's Romantic-hero image is established early on by descriptionsof her physical beauty in terms of masculine, ascetic athleticism. Officially, though, the publisher's assertion of theintellectual quality of the relationship between Stephen and Mary becamethe basis for the ban. The place seemed full of an articulate silence that leapt out shouting from every corner--a jibing, grimacing, vindictive silence. The evidence ofthe Stephen-Mary relationship in Well is that Hall envisioned same-sexmarriage structured on traditional heterosexual lines, i.e., one partnerthe strong provider and the other the weaker helpmate. 1482-1486. The text provides abundant clues thatStephen is to be perceived as a Romantic, not to say tragic, hero(ine). Axiom 6: The Relation of Gay Studies to Debates on the Literary Canon Is, and Had Best Be, Tortuous." The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. from one another" (Sedgwick1483). David H. Howfeminist theory links with gender studies can be seen in Sedgwick's pointthat, whatever else feminist efforts to enlarge the Western canon toinclude women's texts have done, in significant part they have been due to"the scarifying coarseness and visibility with which women and men are, inmost if not all societies, distinguished . Well was also beleaguered by divided critical opinion. oh, no, surely not . Parkes citesprepublication interviews in which Hall took the (socially conventional)view that woman's place is in the home as wife and mother. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. What that came down to was that "Hall was denied avoice not only by her official antagonists but by her own side as well"(Parkes 439). "From Epistemology of the Closet. From thegender/queer studies standpoint, the Well narrative fails to think outsidethe patriarchal as it were box. Undoubtedly Hall wanted someversion of social sanction for inverts; apparently an absence of socialopprobrium would do. Stephen Gordon was dead; she had died last night (Hall 434-5).The overt gesture of the invert, together with her deliberate meditation onthe act, is decisive: for heroes, transcendence and insight are all, and inWell, transcendence = silence and solitude. Not Stephen Gordon . The novel itself, and notsimply the characters of the narrative, was the focus of both legal andliterary conflict, which is important to sort out in part because of theautobiographical aspects of the narrative and in part because the conflictresonates with aspects of gender/queer studies. The second point about Well relevant to feminist and gender/queerstudies is that, as various critics have noticed, Hall herself"superimpos[ed] a heterosexual model" (Parkes 442) on the text as bothliterary fiction and publishing-industry artifact. "Lesbianism, History, and Censorship: The Well of Loneliness and the Suppressed Randiness of Virginia Woolf's Orlando. . In 1928, Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness took as the substanceof its narrative conflict the subject of the consequences of enacting ahomosexual identity in an Anglo-European culture. . But who was it who brushed that silence aside? Parkes continues: By silencing Hall, the judge and lawyers insured the sovereignty of their own critical judgments over and above the issue of professed authorial intention; they also excluded the extraneous voice of a lesbian, who might challenge the judicial verdict that followed from those critical judgments. It is in that context thatHall obtained a one-paragraph preface by the psychologist and acknowledgedsexuality expert Havelock Ellis that deplored social hostility against "aparticular aspect of sexual life as it exists among us today" (Ellis inHall iv). Well, in that view, cooperates in silencing homosexuals. . The evidence of Hall's personal lifeis that she vigorously opposed such limits, at least for herself. The legal proceedings werecomplicated by the publisher's proactive withdrawal of Well to avoid anobscenity fine and his declaration in court that the relationship in thetext was intellectual and not unnatural, as against Hall's earnest desireto have the novel read "as a plea for 'those who are utterly defenceless,who being from birth a people set apart in accordance with some hiddenscheme of Nature, need all the help that society can give them'" (Parkes439). The trial thus became a battle between male[!] readers, whose critical debate would determine the question of lesbianism (Parkes 439-4 ). Hall's tolerance polemic was an attribute of the view that "femaleinverts were hapless freaks of nature, unwittingly trapped in the wrongbody, in the wrong place and time" (Parkes 44 ). Butscorning a "typical romance plot" as somehow unworthy of a story abouthomosexual romance is a little like complaining that Wilkie Collins'sMoonstone, the world's first amateur-detective novel, is riddled withdetective-story cliché. On this view, yielding to the heterosexual imperative is anathema. . . Madden (163ff), whocites Halls liberal recourse to biblical metaphor, identifies Stephen as aself-sacrificing Christ figure, hence hero. Sedgwick cites the problems in applying the feminist canonic "model""to that very differently structured though closely related form ofoppression, modern homophobia" (1483). One need not agree, even with Hall-the-conventional, that unconventional sexual unions are legitimate targets ofsocial marginalization, to see that declaring as stable and perfectly happythe relationship between Stephen and Mary would have robbed Well ofpsychological and narrative verisimilitude and positioned it, so to speak,as a fairy tale. How would that choice have made Well any less polemical,any more art, any more a commentary on the lived experience of beingvictimized by homophobia? She identifies in much criticaldiscourse "a possible though intensively proscribed homosexual identity inEuro-American culture" (1483) but calls for analysis of the presumption ofheterosexual identity, however vexed, as the psychoemotional standard. That is Stephen's gift to Mary and Martin. Richter. The clinical endorsement links to the serious and sincere tone ofthe novel; however, as per gender/queer analysis, the double effect is thatto the degree female inverts are freaks they are also marginalized, to bepitied but not necessarily sanctioned, still less to find a discrete publicvoice. Parkes cites negative critique of Well's dénouement as a variation ona "typical romance plot" and the complaint that it exacerbates lesbianmarginalization because it "enacts Ellis's suggestion that the invert mighttranscend her condition by cultivating a soulful spirituality" (443). And so to the narrative itself. And what it is up to is lending heroic stature toStephen, not in spite of her silence but because of it. But to complain that Well somehow betrays the lesbian voice is toscorn the text for imperfect identity politics that in any case are notpart of the narrative action, rather than notice what the narrative actionis actually up to. Ed. The exercise of silencing the lesbianin court speaks (if one may so put it) directly to Sedgwick's critique ofdiscourse that proscribes and limits homosexual identity and that thereforecalls for gender/queer critical voice. The Well of Loneliness. Her disavowal of Mary is so heroically systematicthat she seeks out Valérie Seymour's collaboration to ensure itseffectiveness. She brushed it aside with a sweep of her hand, as though it were some sort of physical presence. Among theBloomsbury set Well was considered "sincere" and "restrained" in style butalso too on-the-money polemical, and in Bloomsbury that counted against itas art, however aggressively the set might defend Hall's legal right topublish. of a silence that is not imposed on her but that shewillfully adopts (Boy Scouts must be prepared): She let herself into the house with her latchkey. Well was officially banned in England. 2d ed. Oneassessment of that action is that, Stephen silences not only herself butalso, symbolically and to her everlasting shame, the lesbian voice insociety. 1928; New York: Anchor/Random House, 199 .Madden, Ed. Parkes makes two additional points about the controversy surroundingWell that are relevant to feminist and gender/queer studies. However,the action of Well closes with Stephen's relinquishing Mary to Martin. . But a more compelling index ofStephen's heroism is her embrace of the very silence that advocates ofhomosexual voice might complain of. The first isthat Hall's plea for the socially scorned was not part of the legal record,except insofar as Hall, who in real life seems to have cultivated thestereotypical image of the masculine woman, managed a courtroom outburst ofher views. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.