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1 results

  • 23 - Russian Gay and Lesbian Literature

  • from Part V - Geographies of Same-Sex Desire in the Modern World
  • Edited by E. L. McCallum, Michigan State University, Mikko Tuhkanen, Texas A & M University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature
    Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    17 November 2014, pp 421-437

  • Summary

    Marcel Proust's book is inhabited by many books, but the most important one is a vast essay on Eros. His materials are relationships between men and women, as in Swann in Love. In using the term sexual inversion, Proust alluded to a notion that was common enough at the time, namely that homosexual males were "inverted men". Homosexuality was felt by many to be a violation of the law of God and the law of Nature, even an affront to the mental health of the nation. In the circles in which Proust moved, especially as a young man, many people understood perfectly well that he had close relationships with men. But he wanted at all costs to avoid being labeled a "homosexual". A striking feature of Proust's novel is perhaps not that it pays a great deal of attention to male homosexuality but rather its passionate interest in lesbianism.