Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literature

Extract

Sexuality in novels can refer either to the history of sex (as action or being) appearing in novels or, as literary narratology has proposed, a style of sexuality displayed in novels. Characters either are sexual or act sexually, but one can also argue that plots are charged with sexuality. The difficulty in tracing sexuality in novels depends on whether one considers “sexuality” as a history (the amount of sexuality in novels) or as a theory (the possibilities of sexuality as a political praxis, of repression, or of liberation). For some theorists, sexuality is more of a discipline than a form of liberation. For others, literary sex marks a moment of confusion of normative behavior more than a reaction or rebellion (see Dollimore). Often, sexual battles are played out in novels, such as in the domain of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1881), where Isabel Archer debates with herself about conventional marriage and liberal affect. Michel Foucault inspired an examination of the modes by which novels would produce a new kind of sexual norm. His History of Sexuality included analyses of how sexuality became a source of biopower, and he offered a rejection of the “repressive hypothesis,” which contended that humans had repressed their sexual desires in favor of knowledge and power. He argued, rather, that the nineteenth century introduced a new hegemony of sexuality, including ... log in or subscribe to read full text