Sweet Dreams

Sexual Fantasies in J.K.Huysmans's Against the Grain and Leopoldo Alas's La Regenta

Bibliographic Data

ID12759474
AuthorsHasan Ali Al-Zu’bi (0000-0003-0226-8011, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume4
Issue3-4
Pages7-27
Publication date2004-11-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Bisexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1529-9716 • E-ISSN: 1529-9724
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1300/j159v04n03_02
OpenAlexW2332736980
LanguageEN
References cited19

Stranded in a tradition that was only beginning to acknowledge their existence, writers in the nineteenth century had little but the established forms of heterosexual romance with which to build their works. Sexual practices (homosexuality, bisexuality, fetishism) were commonly understood by nineteenth-century novelists, yet since they were not addressed by the established cultural mechanisms, many European writers came to dramatize these sexual practices implicitly in their narratives. This article examines the ways in which two nineteenth-century novelists, J. K. Huysmans and Leopoldo Alas, employ narrative metaphors and descriptions of homoerotic, bisexual, and fetishistic behavior in order to afford their characters sexual identities opposed to the heteronormative cultural ideal. The article concludes that it is only through immersion in the worlds of artifice and other “deviant” sexual practices that the main characters in Huysmans's Against the Grain and Alas's La Regenta synthesize the material and philosophical dimensions of their environment and transcend the level of caricature imposed upon them by society. Key Words: Fetishismsexual inversion Against the Grain La Regenta homosexualitysodomyFreudsexual fantasybisexuality

Aesthetics · Art · Fetishism · Homosexuality · Literature · Narrative · Romance · Sociology · Anthropology · Decadence, Literature, and Society · Gender Studies · Literature and Culture Studies · Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

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