Thesislog

Jeb and Dash very clearly, to me, sits between the aesthetic era of fin-de-siècle Britain and what’s recognizable as American gay identity from the mid-century onwards. It’s obvious that by the 1920s aestheticism as gay has permeated America; Jeb is reading all these guys like Pater or Swinburne or things and has his own understandings of beauty and aestheticism. His description of Niagara echoes Wilde’s from the “Impressions of America,” which is a funny thing—I imagine he’s read that, because he seems to have read the whole canon from the last century, and that quote from Pater both surprised me there and didn’t. The sense that Ellman paints of Wilde having moved beyond Pater made me think that someone in the 20th century wouldn’t be as captivated by him, but perhaps this demonstrates how it takes a little longer for British gay aestheticism to mean the same things in America.

But then again I am even more taken aback by Jeb’s awareness of his own homosexuality, from his willingness to use the word “homosexual” to his almost-pride in it. I think he even uses the word “proud” at one point, which is a cute pride-avant-le-lettre, and his repeated insistence on his own comfort with his identity or his surprise at his gay friends’ discomfort must surely be uncharacteristic when compared to the tortured memoirs we encounter as canonical in mid-century (c.f. Duberman, White). And the avoidance of the sexual has more in common perhaps with today’s gays than with the sexuality-essentialist variety of Ed’s generation. My sense is that Jeb is uncharacteristic, which complicates things, but it’s interesting to see how much he has in common with later American homosexuality, even the homosexuality of our own era. This suggests perhaps that there’s an American homosexual type which is different from British aestheticism because it is American, which could potentially be really exciting. But I think the first steps are to ascertain whether Jeb can be taken as representative, and perhaps Chauncey will give us those clues.