Homoerotic Subjectivities and the Historical Imagination

Abstract

The subjectivities of homoerotically-inclined men sometimes seem elusive, especially in an historical context. This article explores a range of life documents - court files, diaries, photographs and letters - and looks at the characteristics of each. Such sources have their own particular contributions to make to a history of homoerotic subjectivity. Their narratives also reveal something of the interactions between the social and the personal, and the article uses several men's lives to explore these connections. When we closely analyse life documents, we see that while understandings of past subjectivities are indeed complex, they are by no means beyond reach.