Reflecting Narcissus: A Queer Aesthetic

238 Pages·2000·12.72 MB·English

by  Steven Bruhm

R e f l e c t i ng N a r c i s s us
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R e f l e c t i ng N a r c i s s us
A Queer Aesthetic
S T E V EN B R U H M
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Parts of chapter 2 originally appeared as "Taking One to Know One: Oscar Wilde and
Narcissism," English Studies in Canada 21 (1995): 170-88, and as "Reforming Byron's
Narcissism," in Lessons of Romanticism: A Critical Companion, ed. Thomas Pfau and
Robert F. Gleckner (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1998), 429-47. Part of chapter 3
originally appeared as "Blond Ambition: Tennessee Williams's Homographesis," Essays
in Theatre/Etudes théádtrales 14, no. 2 (May 1996): 97-106; reprinted with permission.
An earlier version of chapter 4 appeared as "Queer, Queer Vladimir," American Imago
53 (1996): 281-306; copyright 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press; reprinted by
permission.
Copyright 2001 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All 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.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bruhm, Steven.
Reflecting Narcissus : a queer aesthetic / Steven Bruhm.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8166-3550-1 (hc : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-8166-3551-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Homosexuality in literature. 2. Narcissism in literature. 3. Literature,
Modern-History and criticism. I. Title.
PN56.H57 B78 2000
809'.93353-dc21
00-041791
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
for
Peter Schwenger,
my favorite narcissist
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We have discovered, especially clearly in people whose libidinal
development has suffered some disturbance, such as perverts and
homosexuals, that in their later choice of love objects they have
taken as a model not their mother but their own selves. They are
plainly seeking themselves as a love object, and are exhibiting a
type of object choice which must be termed "narcissistic."
— SIGMUND FREUD, "On Narcissism"
I tell you, my dear, Narcissus was no egotist....[H]e was merely
another of us who, in our unshatterable isolation, recognized,
on seeing his reflection, the one beautiful comrade, the only in-
separable love... poor Narcissus, possibly the only human being
who was ever honest on this point.
— TRUMAN CAPOTE, Other Voices, Other Rooms
I'm starting with the man in the mirror.
— MICHAEL JACKSON, "Man in the Mirror"
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Reflecting Narcissus 1
1. No Exit: Romantic Male Narcissism 20
2. Reverse of the Mirror: Symbolism and Sexology 54
3. Sons and Lovers, Birds and Johns 80
4. Queer Queer Vladimir 116
5. The Gothic in a Culture of Narcissism 144
Conclusion: Rejecting Narcissus 174
Notes 179
Works Cited 199
Index 211