Sex and Sensibility in the Novels of Alan Hollinghurst

Winner of the British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies (BACLS) 2017 Edited Collection Prize

This book is a challenging and engaging collection of original essays on the novels of Alan Hollinghurst, Britain's foremost gay writer and the English novel's master stylist. The essays engage the precarious and shifting relationship between sex and literary sensibility in his novels and, thus, also attempt to establish the parameters of a new critical discourse for future research on Hollinghurst's novel, queer theory and the contemporary literary representations of masculinity and sexuality. By coupling the consideration of Hollinghurst's aesthetics, his sensuously evocative style, to an interrogation of the social, political and sexual currents in his texts, the contributors of this collection provide distinctive interpretations of Hollinghurst's novels, from Hollinghurst's uncovering of a gay artistic heritage to his re-signification of earlier English literary styles, from his engagement with the Symbolist fin de siècle to his critique of aestheticism, etc., whilst paying close attention to the formally innovative qualities of his texts.

Challenging, original essays Deals with controversial aspects of Hollinghurst's work and its relation to contemporary queer politics Places Hollinghurst's works within the emerging currents of queer and contemporary British fiction

Autorentext
Mark Mathuray is a Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK where he previously held a Leverhulme Fellowship. He has published various articles on religious discourses and sublime dissonances in African Literature and contemporary fiction and a monograph, On the Sacred in African Literature: Old Gods and New Worlds (Palgrave, 2009).

Inhalt
Introduction: 'From cocks to haute cuisine, arses to architecture'.- 2. Homosexualising the Novel: Alan Hollinghurst, Ronald Firbank and The Swimming-Pool Library - Paul Vlitos.- 3. A Conflicted Inheritance: The opposing styles of Forster and Firbank in The Swimming-Pool Library - Emily Horton.- 4. The Politics of Art in The Folding Star - Simon Avery.- 5. The Mirror, the City and The Sea: Investigating Intertextuality in The Folding Star - Bianca Leggett.- 6. Tired of London, Tired of Life: The Queer Pastoral in The Spell - Elizabeth English.- 7. Ogee: The Line of Beauty - Adam Roberts.- 8. Attachment and Possession: The Romance of Family, Politics and Things in The Line of Beauty - David Alderson.- 9. On Aesthetic and Historical Dissonance in The Stranger's Child - Mark Mathuray.- 10. 'Ode to a suburban garden': Ex-centric narrative and The Stranger's Child - Martin Dines.- Index