Wilde, Wildeblood and the Welfare State: Exploring homosexuality, class and culture on page, stage and screen in Britain 1945-67

Smith, Gareth 2023. Wilde, Wildeblood and the Welfare State: Exploring homosexuality, class and culture on page, stage and screen in Britain 1945-67. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The emergence of the male homosexual as a recognizable subjectivity in the late nineteenth century was shaped by scandals involving aristocratic men caught in cross-class liaisons, the academic work of homosexual intellectuals seeking to align their own desires with examples from Classical sources and a growing anxiety about the presence of same-sex desires in educational institutions. These varying and overlapping discourses, produced through sexological, legal and journalistic sources, helped to intertwine homosexual representation with specific class experiences and, frequently, a relation to artistic or elitist cultures. This thesis posits that this relationship underwent a considerable shift in Britain following the conclusion of the Second World War, as a result of perceived challenges to traditional class hierarchies, changing conceptions of culture and several key developments in attitudes towards homosexuality. By focusing on how this relationship was explored in a range of texts from the end of the conflict to the decriminalization of homosexuality in the Sexual Offences Act 1967, it is possible to examine the significance of both class and culture to representations of homosexuality in a changing social context. I have chosen to organize the thesis according to form, to note how different art forms and traditions explored that relationship in different ways and argue that broader debates pertaining to cultural standards, values and hierarchies significantly shaped the relationship between homosexuality and class across novels, stage drama and film.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Funders:	AHRC South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 December 2023
Last Modified:	10 Jan 2024 09:35
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/165020

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