“I’d rather see you (dead) at my feet”. Maternal Eroticism and Butch Childhoods in Radclyffe Hall
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25145/j.clepsydra.2020.19.05Keywords:
Radclyffe Hall, Childhood, Butch, Maternity, PerversionAbstract
We will analyze the counterpoint versions of motherhood and butch childhoods in those novels by Radclyffe Hall addressing “sexual inversion,” the lesbian bestseller The Well of Loneliness (1928) and The Unlit Lamp (1924), which present significant differences regarding the conditions of possibility and the misfortunes of a queer life. We will concern ourselves with the representations of maternal abjection, in the light of the importance that Radclyffe assigns to this deeply disturbing erotic bond (whether aversion or attraction) for the development of butch childhoods. We will argue that a careful reading of the perversions of this bond makes clear that Radclyffe’s perspective –for all of its morality, sexual shame and desire to be admitted within the privileges of heterosexuality– allows for a critique of exclusivist, monogamous, and unconditional emotional pacts, as well as of the conception of happiness they give rise to.
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