J.A. Symonds, socialism and the crisis of sexuality in fin-de-siècle Britain

This article analyses the theory of sexuality, personality and politics developed by the literary critic John Addington Symonds (1840–1893). Sections 1 and 2 introduce Symonds’ changing reputation as a modernist theorist of ‘sexual inversion’ (homosexuality). Section 3 examines his conceptualization of the processes whereby an individual can sublimate sexual urges to create a harmonious and unalienated personality which acknowledges the need to combine transgressive self-expression with social convention. Section 4 demonstrates how this theory led Symonds to endorse an eroticized form of democratic socialism, while Section 5 explores the culmination of Symonds’ thought in a form of pantheistic idealism. This research is significant in that it extends our understanding of socialism and sexuality into areas that are marginalized and yet historically important

Communism · Conceptualization · Epistemology · Human sexuality · Idealism · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Philosophy

• Masculinity and Male Homosexuality in Britain, 1861-1913

  Sean Brady, Seán G Brady•Masculinity and Male Homosexuality…•2005

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• John Addington Symonds, Venice and the Gaze

  Howard J Booth•English Studies•2013

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