Onegin again - all dressed up
atacama at global.co.za
atacama at global.co.za
Sat Apr 1 10:22:46 UTC 2006
So we know that Onegin was a
narcissistic dandy, but that does not mean 'gay'
or 'queer' - rather it shows an all consuming
self-love of a bored young man. This personality
trait of exaggerated vanity is patently manifest in
today's women of the consumer society....
but narcissism, dandyism, vanity, flaunting self-love
still does not equate with homosexuality, but could be
contributing factors.
There are many parallels in history where men
displayed themselves in all their splendour like
strutting peacocks, here a man's finery outshone
a woman's, so we must not judge Onegin by today's
standards, as our own reality which did not apply to
his era.
Our world view would have been alien to him.
A historian of the fashion industry would be the
right person to comment further on the male desire
to outshine all competitors throughout the ages.
Vera Beljakova
Original Message:
-----------------
From: Daniel Rancour-Laferriere darancourlaferriere at COMCAST.NET
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:13:02 -0800
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Onegin again
31 March 2006
Rebecca Jane Stanton states:
>
> I note, certainly not by way of reproof but for anyone on the list to
> whom it may be useful information, that "homosexuality" and "gayness"
> are not interchangeable as critical terms; "gayness" encodes a
> political identity generally thought of as available only after the
> 1969 Stonewall riots. So technically neither Pushkin's Onegin nor
> Tchaikovsky's can be "gay," though either or both could be homosexual
> (and I suppose a modern-dress production of Onegin could present him
> as being both).
My Webster's Dictionary (2004 edition) gives the relevant definitions of
the adjective "gay" as "homosexual" and "of, relating to, or used by
homosexuals." The derived noun is "gayness," and the other noun, "gay"
is defined as "homosexual" and "a homosexual male." So, no mention of
the Stonewall riots. Besides, how could Oscar Wilde have known of those
riots? Or Lord Byron? Or Verlaine? Or Gogol'? Or Leonardo da Vinci?
Or the ancient Greek _erastes_ with his _eromenos_? Or the guys who
live in politically organized "men's houses" in a variety of
nonindustrial societies such as the Batak of Sumatra, the Keraki of New
Guinea, and so on?
These people all SHARE an important human feature.
To say that "gayness" only encodes a recently established political
identity is arbitrarily to EXCLUDE those who are either unable or are
not particularly interested in buying into that identity, be they
heterosexual or homosexual in their orientation, their fantasy life, or
their behavior. Let the gay community beware of identifying with its
homophobic, exclusionary aggressors. Let Onegin be latently
gay/homosexual for Freudian analysis as well as for queer studies. And
as for those who see only a cultural, non-sexual construct in the words -
ïÎ ÔÒÉ ÞÁÓÁ, ÐÏ ËÒÁÊÎÅÊ ÍÅÒÅ,
ðÒÅÄ ÚÅÒËÁÌÁÍÉ ÐÒÏ×ÏÄÉÌ
é ÉÚ ÕÂÏÒÎÏÊ ×ÙÈÏÄÉÌ
ðÏÄÏÂÎÙÊ ×ÅÔÒÅÎÏÊ ÷ÅÎÅÒÅ,
ëÏÇÄÁ, ÎÁÄÅ× ÍÕÖÓËÏÊ ÎÁÒÑÄ,
âÏÇÉÎÑ ÅÄÅÔ × ÍÁÓËÁÒÁÄ.
- that is fine too, for purely literary-cultural studies of the
transvestite manifestations of Dandyism reveal much that is
interesting. But for the one who PROTESTS TOO MUCH against the idea of
Onegin's underlying gayness/homosexuality, I say, again with Pushkin:
é ÎÅ ÏÓÐÏÒÉ×ÁÊ ÇÌÕÐÃÁ.
Regards to the list,
Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
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