Metropolitan Lovers: The Homosexuality of Cities

381 Pages·2009·11.35 MB·English

by  Julie Abraham

Metropolitan Lovers
The Homosexuality of Cities
Julie Abraham
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS • LONDON
Published with assistance from the
Margaret S. Harding Memorial Endowment
honoring the first director of the
University of Minnesota Press.
Copyright 2009 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
Ali rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
m Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://ww.wupress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abraham, Julie.
Metropolitan lovers : the homosexuality of cities / Julie Abraham.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-3818-5 (he: alk. paper) -ISBN 978-0-8166-3819-2
(pb: alk. paper)
1. Homosexuality in literature. 2. American literature-History and
criticism. 3. Lesbianism in literature. 4. Cities and towns in literature.
5. City and town life in literature. 6. Homosexuality-History.
7. City and town life-United States-History. 8. Gays-United States­
Social conditions. l. Title.
PS169.H65A37 2008
809 '.93352664--dc22
2008037977
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and
emp!oyer.
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
fOR HAZEL ADELINE HANNAFORD
(1903-1973)
who rarely left Adelaide
FoR S1MoN JosEPH ABRAHAM
(1900-1973)
who traveled from Gray Street to Lebanon and back again
To NEw YORK C1TY
where I have found my home

1 will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks,
By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades.
-WALT WHIT MAN, "ForYou,O Democracy"

Contents
Preface: The Lives of Homosexuals in the Idea of the City xiii
Acknowledgments xxi
Part l. Setting Terms
Les Lesbiennes, or The City in History 3
l.
Femmes damnées 3
The Vice of Whores 10
The Victims of Capital 14
The Heroines of Modernism 24
2. Osear Wilde in Los Angeles 37
Reading Lessons 37
The Legible City 44
The Genius of Criminals 50
Ernest in Town 59
Socialism and Interpretation 68
Part 11. Claiming Residence
3. Perverts in Groups
The Social Evil in Chicago
Modern Nervousness
La Ville invisible
4. City of Women 111
The Social Claim and the Industrial City 111
At Home on Halsted Street 125
5. Radclyffe Hall at the Chicago School 141
The Criminal, the Defective, and the Genius 141
Communal Lives 155
Part 111. The Fear and Hope of Great American Cities
6. Paris, Harlem, Hudson Street-1961
Are Cities Un-American?
History in the City
Children and Strangers
Neighborhoods and Slums
7. City of Feeling 221
The Culture of Cities 221
Into the Streets 230
Ghetto Gentry 242
Making Urban Meaning 253
Afterword: Queer in the Great City 273
Somewhere 273
A Place for Us 279
The Future of Cities 287
Notes 301
Index 351