History's Queer Stories Retrieving and Navigating Homosexuality in British Fiction about the Second World War (Edition 1)

• Main Author: Nobitz, Natalie Marena (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Bielefeld transcript Verlag 2018
• Subjects: Literature: history & criticism; Gay & Lesbian studies; Gender studies, gender groups; Literary Criticism; European; English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Social Science; LGBTQ+ Studies; Gay Studies; Gender Studies
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

Critical analysis of the dramatisation of homosexuality in British fiction about the Second World War is noticeable only by its relative absence from the field. Whereas feminist literary criticism has broadened the canon of war fiction to include narratives by and about women, queer scholars have seldom focused on literary representations of homosexuality during the war. Natalie Marena Nobitz closes a glaring gap in the critical attention of four novels dealing with the disruption of gender roles and institutionalised heteronormativity: Walter Baxter's Look Down in Mercy (1951), Mary Renault's The Charioteer (1953), Sarah Waters The Night Watch (2006) and Adam Fitzroy's Make Do and Mend (2012).