Englishness, Literature and Sexuality, 1918-1939
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BODIES, BOOKS AND THE BUCOLIC: ENGLISHNESS, LITERATURE AND SEXUALITY, 1918-1939 WREN SIDHE A thesis submitted to Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities May 2001 ABSTRACT The hypothesisthis thesistests is that interwar hegemonicdiscourses of Englishness locatedit as originating in the heterosexualbond betweena masculinenational subject and a feminine nature/landscape.Discursively, this left little spacefor women to insert themselvesinto sucha cultural formation. However, a paradoxof this heterosexualising 0 cultural matrix may havebeen to give a voice to lesbiansubjectivity, sinceIf 'women' might not be English, could lesbiansbe? If national land was figured as feminine, and women desiredidentification with their country-as-land,to becomeEnglish might mean for somewomen that they shouldbecome lesbian. In order to explore this, three main questionsare examined.Firstly, to what extent did the dominant discourseof the rural in the interwar period define 'Englishness'as masculineand 'Nature' as feminine? Secondly,if women were excludedfrom this discursiveheterosexual relationship, can it be seenparadoxically to haveopened up a spacefor alternativesexualities to emerge? If lesbianismwere an instanceof the latter, then what writing strategieswere adoptedin order to articulatea relationshipbetween Englishness and lesbianism?Thirdly, what can censoredand other literary texts of the period reveal aboutthe relationsbetween such an English masculinenational subject,the meaningand powersattributed to literature,and forbidden sexualitiesand subjectivities? In its analysisof the relationshipbetween national identity, geographical location and sexuality,this thesiscontributes to studiesof Englandand Englishness through the addition of the conceptof 'sexuality' to an understandingof their construction.It also contributesto lesbianand gay critical theory by examiningthe nationalprocesses which impinge of the construýtionof the homosexualsubject. Beyondthat, ýheimportance of the materiality of the locationsoffered to different subjectivitiesshows how nationalidentifies are both enabledand limited by thesesame locations. Author's declaration I declarethat the work in this t4esiswas carried out in accordancewith the regulations of Cheltenhamand GloucesterCollege of Mgher Educationand is original except where indicatedby specific referencein the text. No part of the thesishas been submittedas part of any other academicaward. The thesishas not beenpresented to any other educationinstitution in the United Kingdom or overseas. Any views expressedin the thesisare thoseof the author and in no way represent thoseof the college. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was undertakenwith the financial supportof the Arts and Humanities ResearchBoard, to whom I am enormouslygrateful. Other financial supportwas also given by the John Marshall Memorial Fund and the DaphneDoughton Fund who helpedme out at a tricky moment. I feel very lucky to havehad sucha committed and supportiveset of supervisors.This comeswith my thanks to ProfessorPeter Widdowson, Dr. Hilary Hinds and Dr. Alison Oram and also to ProfessorDiana Woodward, Jacqueline ' Collinson and Roberta Stevensonwho run a friendly and stimulating graduateschool. I have also had many interesting discussionswith membersof the English, History, Women's Studies,and Geographydepartments at Cheltenhamand Gloucester College, especiallythose who were in the Genderand Spatiality Group. In particular, I would like to thank CaraAitchinson, Simon Barker, Alan Brown, Andrew Charlesworth,Simon Dentith, Jo Gill, Melanie Ilic, Manzu Islam, Ros Jennings, Ruth McElroy, CharlesMore, Fatih Ozbilgin and Shelley Saguaro. I havecorresponded with David Matlessand Michael Bartholomew about H. V. Morton and Englishness,chatted with Kath Holden about single women betweenthe wars, with Asphodel Long and Daniel Cohenabout folklore, paganism and fascism,with Lindsay River about lesbianwritings, with Nickianne Moody about catsand popular fictions. Laura Doan kindly took me out to lunch to discusslesbians of the interwar period. JayneNelson was a wonderful companionon a coachtrip to view the museumsand battlefields of the WesternFront. Mrs. BarbaraWestgate 0 kindly sharedrecollections of her father, H. V. Morton, with me, and Brian de Villiers discussedhis memoriesof H. V. Morton in SouthAfrica. The SouthWest Englandand SouthWales Women's I-Iistory Network hasbeen 4 stimulating forum for debate.But, in the end, all mistakesare my own, as indeed,they were in the beginning. I would like to thank staff at Cheltenhamand GloucesterCollege, in particular thosewho deal with the inter-library loans,those at the library of the University of the West of England,especially Amanda Salter,staff of the British library at Eustonand the ColindaleNewspaper Library, the Imperial War Museum and the National Maritime Museum.The Soil Associationkindly allowed me accessto their collection at a time when they were very busy. My biggestthanks go to my children, Maya Savarin-Wengraf,Joseph Wengraf and Katia Wengraf - whosewitty views on life haveprovided a counterpart to my own seriousness- and to Helen Udo-Affia - who besidesbeing a girlfriend of extraordinaryqualities also sortedout my computerproblems with cheerful calm. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 1. BANNED AND RESTRICTED BOOKS: UNACCEPTABLE IN ENGLAND 27 2. H. V. MORTON'S PILGRIMAGES TO ENGLISHNESS 67 3. MEN-, IN-EARTH: A TROPE OF ENGLISHNESS 84 4. ALL AT SEA 115 S. WOMEN AND EARTH 144 6. THE LESBIAN AND THE NATION 171 CONCLUSION 205 BIBLIOGRAPHY 217 INTRODUCTION So now they were launchedon the streamthatflows silent and deepthrough all great cities, gliding on betweenprecipitous borders,away and away into no-man's-land - the mostdesolate count? y in all creation. ' When the lesbianlovers, Stephenand Mary, in Radclyffe Hall's 7he Well of Loneliness becomeinvolved with a lesbianand gay community in Paris,the narrative providesthe abovecommentary on their situatiori. Homosexuality,it seems,is neither metropolitannor rural, but outsidenational boundariesand in a liminal spacebetween borders.Previously, Stephenhad been exiled from England becauseof her desirefor other women. This was a bitter irony to her since, through her love of England,she had chosento becomeinvolved with the war effort in defenceof England.However, when the Great War endedshe, and other lesbians,found they were still unwantedin En-land: The very public whom they had servedwas the first to turn round and spit upon them; to cry: 'Away with this cankerin our midst, this nest of unrighteousness and corruption!' That was the gratitudethey had receivedfor the work they had done out of love for England! I Whilst the war had enabledStephen to meet othersof her kind and createa lesbian identity for herself, it had also provided a metaphor- 'no-man's-land' - for the way sheperceived her place in relation to the nation.Without roots in the English landscape,she can only drift on a dangerousstream of water. The silenceof this streamsuggests that homosexualityis also outsidelanguage. In the face of exile from England,desolation has becomeStephen and Mary's 'country', but this desolation could be amelioratedif only Englandwould acknowledgetheir lesbianism.Stephen doesnot acceptthat her desirefor women invalidatesher love of country. It is the relationshipbetween national identity, geographicallocation and sexuality that this thesisexplores. Is Stephenright that national identity and lesbianismare antithetical?This would imply that Englishnessis heterosexual. Nonetheless,the. dangers attributed to homosexuality,figured through 'the precipitous borders' betweenwhich the streamflows, can be avertedthroug ha call on nation. This streamis, dangerous because it hasno national identity, thereforeto provide 2 nationalidentity to homosexualitywould makehomosexuality a safesubjectivity to inhabit. But why is homosexualitypositioned as outsideof nation?Is this a peculiarity of Radclyffe Hall's writing, or do other texts figure homosexualitydifferently? Is it possibleto inscribe a homosexualsubject who is also national?These are someof the questionsthis thesisaddresses through a study of literary texts from the interwar period. The interwar period constitutesa particularly significanthistorical momentin which to examinethe configurationsof sexuality and nation through literary texts for two main reasons.Firstly, the nation was in upheavalafter the Great War, both in terms of the disruption of previousýgender and classrelations, and also in termsof a widely perceivedneed that the nation neededa cultural renewal,and that English literature was a prime site through which, it was argued,the nation could be renewed.English culture was seento have becometoo ferninised,and neededa renewalto take place through 'virility' -a key term in debatesabout the stateof the nation. Secondly,as Jeffrey Weeks has shown, 'by the end of the nineteenthcentury a recognisably"modem" male homosexualidentity was beginningto emerge',and 3 later, in the interwar years,the lesbianwas emergingas a formal identity. Her position in the nation was subjectto parliamentaryand other debate.In 1921,for example,Parliament debated whether to criminalise lesbianismas a meansto strengthenthe nation againstmoral downfall. Whilst somesaw lesbianismas a danger to nation, othersthought it harmlessenough to be (pointedly) ignored.The conjunction of thesetwo conditions offers a fruitful areaof analysis.