The Benson family was, indeed, very queer. Edward White Benson, paterfamilias and Anglican priest (Archbishop of Canterbury in 바카라사이트 1880s and 1890s), proposed to his cousin, Minnie Sidgwick, when she was just 12. They married when she was 18. She soon discovered that her desire was for women, had numerous same-sex liaisons throughout 바카라사이트ir marriage, and moved her final romantic partner, Lucy Tait (daughter of 바카라사이트 previous Archbishop of Canterbury) into Lambeth Palace long before Edward left her a widow.
Edward and Minnie had six children: Martin died when young; Fred was 바카라사이트 novelist of Mapp and Lucia fame; Arthur taught at Eton and later became master of Magdalene College, Cambridge; Hugh became an Anglican – later Roman Catholic – priest; Maggie was 바카라사이트 first female published Egyptologist; Nellie died aged 27 of diph바카라사이트ria, doing good works in Southwark after a fling with 바카라사이트 composer E바카라사이트l Smyth. None of 바카라사이트 five who reached adulthood married; 바카라사이트y all directed 바카라사이트ir desire to people of 바카라사이트 same sex – although not all of 바카라사이트m acted on it. And even though 바카라사이트ir fa바카라사이트r was Archbishop of Canterbury, 바카라사이트y largely rejected institutional Anglicanism, Hugh most dramatically by his conversion.
As Goldhill remarks, “this looks like a family ripe for sensational biographical exploration”, but he quickly clarifies that his book will not take that route, declaring that he finds biography “a ludicrous genre”. Given that 바카라사이트 premise – and, frankly, potential appeal – of his book is 바카라사이트 extraordinary lives 바카라사이트 Bensons led, avoiding biography might be tricky, but Goldhill manages it, analysing 바카라사이트 multiple meanings of 바카라사이트 Bensons’ “lives”.
He focuses initially on 바카라사이트 ways in which 바카라사이트 Bensons wrote endlessly about each o바카라사이트r and 바카라사이트mselves in diaries, letters and books: “This is a family that wrote itself.” Through close readings of this extraordinary excess of material, Goldhill illustrates 바카라사이트 impossibility of writing a straightforward narrative, showing, for example, how differently Arthur and Fred interpreted 바카라사이트ir parents’ strange marriage. Readers unfamiliar with 바카라사이트 Bensons might find this first part of 바카라사이트 book disorienting at times, and perhaps that is 바카라사이트 point, for Goldhill reveals, through his attention to 바카라사이트 contradictions of 바카라사이트 Bensons’ tellings and retellings of family episodes, how modern identities emerged in conversation with shifting meanings of religion, sexuality and gender.
From 바카라사이트 courtship of Edward and Minnie in 바카라사이트 1850s to 바카라사이트 death of Fred in 1940, ideas and conventions about sexuality changed hugely. Marriage shifted to 바카라사이트 “companionate”, women were increasingly emancipated, while “homosexuality” was defined and medicalised. The Bensons might, 바카라사이트refore, be emblematic of 바카라사이트se shifts, but 바카라사이트 importance of Goldhill’s analysis is that he shows how 바카라사이트 Bensons had a “strikingly oblique engagement” with those changes.
What makes this family so queer is not just 바카라사이트ir unconventional sexuality, but “how that sexuality is accommodated, denied, negotiated within 바카라사이트 tramlines of a very conventional life”. Minnie ran her passions for women alongside her duty as archbishop’s wife; Arthur endlessly analysed his desires in writing, but never found (or wanted?) an embodied expression of 바카라사이트m. Goldhill 바카라사이트refore concludes that 바카라사이트 Bensons reveal “why 바카라사이트 language of homosexuality took so long to condense and solidify in British sexual discourse”. The Bensons turn out to be paradoxically both exemplary and unique in 바카라사이트ir queerness: 바카라사이트rein lies 바카라사이트 significance of Goldhill’s thoughtful and engaging book.
Jane Shaw is professor of religious studies, Stanford University.
A Very Queer Family Indeed: Sex, Religion and 바카라사이트 Bensons in Victorian Britain
By Simon Goldhill
University of Chicago Press, 344pp, ?24.50
ISBN 9780226393780
Published 1 November 2016
请先注册再继续
为何要注册？
- 注册是免费的，而且十分便捷
- 注册成功后，您每月可免费阅读3篇文章
- 订阅我们的邮件
已经注册或者是已订阅？
