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The Queer Peer: Masculinity and Brotherhood in Cain and Abel Literature and Imagination

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Queering Masculinities in Language and Culture

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality ((PSLGS))

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to outline the variations assumed in the literature and, more generally, in the collective imagination of the story of Cain in his relationship with his peer, his brother Abel. Approaching it from a queer theory perspective means studying an interesting, archetypal case of relationship between males, thus one concerning the representation of masculinity in pairs of men who share a bond of blood, responsibility, crime, and guilt. Analysing what is stable and similar in the different literary and artistic representations of Cain and Abel over time and across different cultures can lead to a reflection on the changes in the culture and society about masculinity and otherness, while also showing the permeability of the archetype to queer perspectives and rewritings.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Lyotard, J.-F. (1984). The Postmodern Condition: a Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

  2. 2.

    Halperin, D. (1995). Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 62.

  3. 3.

    References to the Bible are from the New International Version.

  4. 4.

    See S. Cannon, A. , Hand, W.D. , Talley, J. (1984). Religion, Magic, Ghostlore: Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from Utah. Salt Lake City: University of Utah.

  5. 5.

    See Williams, D. (1982). Cain and Beowulf: A Study in Secular Allegory . Toronto: Toronto UP; Mellinkoff, R. (1981). The Mark of Cain. Berkeley: University of California; O’Donoghue, H. (2003). What Has Baldr to Do with Lamech? The Lethal Shot of a Blind Man in Old Norse Myth and Jewish Exegetical Traditions. Medium Aevum, 72(1), 82–107; Bandy, S.C. (1973). Cain, Grendel, and the Giants of Beowulf. Papers on Language and Literature, 9, 235–249.

  6. 6.

    Wagner, E. (2013). Keeping It in the Family: Beowulf and the Tradition of Familicide in the Kin of Cain. Hortulus Journal 9(1), p. 36.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., p. 27.

  8. 8.

    Hodges, H.J. (2007). Cain’s Fratricide: Original Violence as “Original Sin” in Beowulf. Chungse Yongmunhak Medieval English Studies 15(1), p. 32.

  9. 9.

    The Woman’s Bible (1974), written by the nineteenth-century feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a “Revising Committee”, is one of the first attempts by women to evaluate the Judeo-Christian legacy and its impact on women’s lives. Stanton does not go as far as to affirm that “God is a woman”, but there are several contributions which discuss the gender of God.

  10. 10.

    One example is the 1999 film Dogma , where God takes the shape, among other terrestrial figures, of the pop singer Alanis Morissette.

  11. 11.

    Sullivan, N. (2003). A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. New York: New York University, p. 190.

  12. 12.

    “The Cain myth must have seemed to a non-theological age to be more closely related to history than the Adamic myth” (Stock, E. (1977). Chaos, the Self and the Cain Myth: John Hay and Henry Adams. MLA session The Cain and Abel Theme in Literature, cited in Quinones, R.J. (1991). The Changes of Cain: Violence and the Lost Brother in Cain and Abel Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 267, note 1.

  13. 13.

    Quinones, R.J. (1991). The Changes of Cain, p. 136.

  14. 14.

    In the Japanese vampire anime Shiki (2010), for example, there are numerous references to Cain and Abel, as the story is described as a metaphor where Cain and Abel are two sides of the same person, and in which the murder of Abel reflected Cain’s rejection of God. In the famous series of light novels, Trinity Blood (2001–2005), the multiple Christian themes of the post-apocalyptic plot also include references to Cain and Abel: Cain Knightlord (Krusnik 01, also significantly referred as Contra Mundi) is Abel’s older twin brother, depicted, with some variations in the novels, manga, and anime, with blond hair and piercings in both ears. A cover sees him being portrayed with red roses and a red banner inscribed with “igne natura, renovatur integra” (“through fire, nature is reborn whole”), the Christian medieval identification of the five petals of the rose with the five wounds of Christ. In other manga versions he is portrayed as a white-eared White Rabbit, as opposed to his brother, the black-eared rabbit, or with a ram’s head, a reference to Baphomet, an occultist figure usually associated with evil. As a child, before his fusion with the nanomachines, Cain is compassionate and sensible, and demonstrates a wisdom far beyond his years. However, after his fusion with the machines, he becomes unstable as he combines his good nature with the nanomachines’ bloodlust, becoming apathetic and remorseless, incapable of processing the consequences of his actions, or even totally careless: “The resulting being went completely insane, desiring the eradication of all life on Earth while maintaining an outwardly upbeat, childish, and somewhat air-headed demeanor” (source: http://trinityblood.wikia.com/wiki/Lilith_Sahl). In the same series Abel Nightroad (Krusnik 02) is the main protagonist, a member of a division of the Vatican’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Abel has long silvery hair, tied with a black ribbon, blue-gray eyes, and wears small round glasses. He also wears a black priest’s robe with embroidered crosses and white gloves. Originally he hates humans, but ultimately changes his mind after the death of another Krusnik called Lilith Sahl.

  15. 15.

    Quinones, R.J. (1991), The Changes of Cain, pp. 5 and 7.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., p. 4.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., p. 206.

  18. 18.

    Foucault, M. (1980). The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1: An Introduction. New York: Vintage, p. 59.

  19. 19.

    Sullivan, N. (2003). A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, p. 144.

  20. 20.

    Quinones, R.J. (1991), The Changes of Cain, p. 13.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., p. 144.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa, Napoli, Italia

    Paola Di Gennaro

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  1. Paola Di Gennaro
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, Lancashire, United Kingdom

    Paul Baker

  2. Literary, Linguistic and Comparative Studies, University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Naples, Italy

    Giuseppe Balirano

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Di Gennaro, P. (2018). The Queer Peer: Masculinity and Brotherhood in Cain and Abel Literature and Imagination. In: Baker, P., Balirano, G. (eds) Queering Masculinities in Language and Culture. Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95327-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95327-1_6

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