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Coding Victorian Homosexuality in Literary Style Benjamin Papsun, Vassar College Before the open expression of homosexuality was socially acceptable, artists interested in representing themes of non-hegemonic romance had to disguise them by adopting various stylistic lenses. One tool that these artists had at their disposal in the Victorian era was the ability to capitalize on the popular trend of appropriating the thematic and stylistic devices of older artistic schools for the modern day. Prominent social and literary critics such as Matthew Arnold and Walter Pater advocated a return to the Hellenic ideal of “spontaneity of consciousness” (Arnold 128), and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood asserted the importance of capturing nature via mimesis as Renaissance artists had done in the 15th century prior to Raphael (“[seeing] the object as in itself it really is” (Arnold 29)). 2Adopting styles existing outside of the contemporary vocabulary offered artists a liminal space where exotic sensualities could exist, and which allowed them (to some extent) to deflect the suspicions and provocations of moral panic that would result from such works.2 Two literary works which exemplify this subversive adoption of previous genres are Christina Rossetti’s 1862 poem “Goblin Market” and Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel T he Picture of Dorian Gray. In both works, the author creates a representation of homosexuality in the guise of reverence towards a particular era of art and the values espoused by it—for Rossetti, the genre is Gothic; for Wilde, Hellenic. The effect that both create is a depiction of lecherous behavior which is nonetheless made acceptable because it exists within an accepted genre (and thereby moral) convention. That being said, what makes these two works particularly interesting in their representations of temptation are the subtextual attitudes they seem to have towards their subject matter. While both establish a dichotomy of purity versus obscenity, they use this dichotomy to subvert moral expectations rather than reinforce them. In “Goblin Market,” Lizzie represents the Victorian ideal of the “lady.” She is responsible for keeping her sister’s desires in check by warning her of the dangers of the goblin men, thereby ensuring that they can
