Utopian Gossip: “The Homosexual in Society” from Robert Duncan to New Narrative

This paper collects the commentary surrounding Robert Duncan’s 1944 essay “The Homosexual in Society” to develop an account of Duncan’s relationship to New Narrative, a group of younger, mostly-gay poets. The first half of the essay focuses directly on Duncan’s composition of the essay, his emendati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Eric Sneathen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2020-12-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/10651
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832578547589316608
author Eric Sneathen
author_facet Eric Sneathen
author_sort Eric Sneathen
collection DOAJ
description This paper collects the commentary surrounding Robert Duncan’s 1944 essay “The Homosexual in Society” to develop an account of Duncan’s relationship to New Narrative, a group of younger, mostly-gay poets. The first half of the essay focuses directly on Duncan’s composition of the essay, his emendations of 1959, his experiences with the editor John Crowe Ransom, and Duncan’s portions of interviews with gay poets throughout the 1970s that brought out new details about “The Homosexual in Society” essay. The second half of the essay considers how New Narrative writers related to Duncan and his essay, including a shared interest in gossip. Drawing on the totality of this archive, the essay suggests two new themes that can be drawn from “The Homosexual in Society” for contemporary readers: the (in)commensurability of race and sexuality and the rejection of homo-fascism.
format Article
id doaj-art-722f1d927aee438ca6deb19c59631754
institution Kabale University
issn 1272-3819
1969-6302
language English
publishDate 2020-12-01
publisher Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
record_format Article
series Sillages Critiques
spelling doaj-art-722f1d927aee438ca6deb19c596317542025-01-30T13:47:28ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022020-12-012910.4000/sillagescritiques.10651Utopian Gossip: “The Homosexual in Society” from Robert Duncan to New NarrativeEric SneathenThis paper collects the commentary surrounding Robert Duncan’s 1944 essay “The Homosexual in Society” to develop an account of Duncan’s relationship to New Narrative, a group of younger, mostly-gay poets. The first half of the essay focuses directly on Duncan’s composition of the essay, his emendations of 1959, his experiences with the editor John Crowe Ransom, and Duncan’s portions of interviews with gay poets throughout the 1970s that brought out new details about “The Homosexual in Society” essay. The second half of the essay considers how New Narrative writers related to Duncan and his essay, including a shared interest in gossip. Drawing on the totality of this archive, the essay suggests two new themes that can be drawn from “The Homosexual in Society” for contemporary readers: the (in)commensurability of race and sexuality and the rejection of homo-fascism.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/10651Robert DuncanPoetryGayGossipHistoriographyNew Narrative
spellingShingle Eric Sneathen
Utopian Gossip: “The Homosexual in Society” from Robert Duncan to New Narrative
Sillages Critiques
Robert Duncan
Poetry
Gay
Gossip
Historiography
New Narrative
title Utopian Gossip: “The Homosexual in Society” from Robert Duncan to New Narrative
title_full Utopian Gossip: “The Homosexual in Society” from Robert Duncan to New Narrative
title_fullStr Utopian Gossip: “The Homosexual in Society” from Robert Duncan to New Narrative
title_full_unstemmed Utopian Gossip: “The Homosexual in Society” from Robert Duncan to New Narrative
title_short Utopian Gossip: “The Homosexual in Society” from Robert Duncan to New Narrative
title_sort utopian gossip the homosexual in society from robert duncan to new narrative
topic Robert Duncan
Poetry
Gay
Gossip
Historiography
New Narrative
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/10651
work_keys_str_mv AT ericsneathen utopiangossipthehomosexualinsocietyfromrobertduncantonewnarrative