Skip to main content
Log in

Radclyffe Hall, E. Lynn Harris, and Franz Kafka: Christianity, Queerness, and the Politics of Normalcy

  • Published:
International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies

Abstract

This essay examines Christian tropes in three queer texts: Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928), E. Lynn Harris's Just As I Am (1994), and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915). At issue are the linkages between queer theory and literature, on the one hand, and Christian paradigms, on the other hand. This essay considers whether, insofar as they deploy Christian tropes, these texts sustain a politics of the normal that inevitably subvert queer-positive representations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Adams, R. (1958). Strains of discord: Studies in literary openness. Ithaca, NewYork: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, M. (1996). Kafka, homosexuality and the Aesthetics of 'male culture'. In R. Robertson & E. Timms (Eds.), Gender and politics in Austrian fiction. Austrian studies VII (pp. 79-99). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boa, E. (1996). Kafka, gender, class, and race in the letters and fictions. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breen, M.S. (2000). Desert of the heart: Jane Rule's Puritan outing. In T. Fessenden, N. F. Radel, & M. J. Zabrowska (Eds.), The Puritan origins of American sex (pp. 235-252). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of "sex." New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corngold, S. (1972). Introduction. In S. Corngold (Trans. & Ed.), The metamorphosis by F. Kafka (1915) (pp. xi-xxii). New York: Bantam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilman, S. (1995). The Jewish patient. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasgow, J. (1997). Rethinking the mythic mannish Radclyffe Hall. In M. Duberman (Ed.), Queer representations: Reading lives, reading cultures (pp. 197-208). New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasgow, J. (1990). What's a nice lesbian like you doing in the church of Torquemada? Radclyffe Hall and other Catholic converts. In K. Jay & J. Glasgow (Eds.), Lesbian texts and contexts: Radical revisions. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halberstam, J. (1998). Female masculinity. Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, R. (1928/1930). The well of loneliness. New York: Covici-Friede.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, E. L. (1994). Just as I am. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, E. L. (1997). Online interview (9/23/1997). http://aalbc.com/chattext1.htm.

  • Holland, N. (1958). Realism and unrealism: Kafka's "Metamorphosis." Modern fictions studies 4, 143-150.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, J. W. (2001). Acceptable homosexual heterosexuality: Hanns Heinz Ewers's Fundvogel and Nationalist Socialist Ideology. International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, 6(3).

  • Kafka, F. (1976). The diaries, 1910-1923. M. Brod (Ed.); J. Kresh & M. Greenberg with H. Arendt, Trans., New York: Schocken.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kafka, F. (1915/1972). The metamorphosis. S. Corngold (Trans. & Ed.), New York: Bantam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kafka, F. (1990). Tagebücher, H. G. Koch, M. Mueller, M. Pasley (Eds.), Frankfurt: S. Fischer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, H. (1931/1972). Kafka's fantasy of punishment. In S. Corngold (Trans. & Ed), The metamorphosis by F. Kafka (pp. 147-156), New York: Bantam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. & Lyon, P. (1972). Lesbian/woman. New York: Bantam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mecke, G. (1982). Franz Kafkas offenbares Geheimnis. Eine Psychopathie. Munich.

  • Radford, J. (1986). An inverted romance: The well of loneliness and sexual ideology. In J. Radford (Ed.), The progress of romance: The politics of popular fiction. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruehl, S. (1982). Inverts and experts: Radclyffe Hall and the lesbian identity. In R. Brunt & C. Rowan (Eds.), Feminism, culture, and politics. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rule, J. (1975). Lesbian Images. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokel, W. (1995). Kafka and the twentieth century. Journal of the Kafka Society of America. 19(1-2), 4-8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, A. (1995). Virtually normal: An argument about homosexuality. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiefenbrun, R. (1973). Moment of torment: An interpretation ofFranz Kafka's short stories. Carbondale, IL: University of Southern Illinois.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, J. (1994). Armor or fetish?: Corporeal and sartorial armoring in Franz Kafka's Die Verwandlung. Journal of the Kafka society of America. 18(1), 48-57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner, M. (2000). The trouble with normal: Sex, politics, and the ethics of queer life. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner, M. (1993/1996). Tongues untied: Memoirs of a Pentecostal boyhood. In D. Morton (Ed.), The material queer: A lesbigay cultural studies reader (pp. 39-45). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M. (1994). Stranger at the gate: To be gay and Christian in America. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Margaret Soenser Breen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Breen, M.S. Radclyffe Hall, E. Lynn Harris, and Franz Kafka: Christianity, Queerness, and the Politics of Normalcy. International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies 6, 293–304 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012269209381

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012269209381

Navigation