Fighting desires: Henry Miller's Queer Tropic

Area of Science:

• Literary Criticism
• Queer Theory
• American Literature

Background:

• Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" is often read through a lens of overt heterosexuality.
• This analysis re-examines the novel, considering Eve Sedgwick's theory of male sexuality as a continuum.
• The study investigates the nuanced dynamics of male relationships within the text.

Discussion:

• Male-male relationships are posited as the most intimate, with women serving as catalysts for male bonding through narrative.
• Sexual encounters with women are framed as performative, valued for the subsequent storytelling to other men.
• Miller's use of wordplay and puns is analyzed for its contribution to a homoerotic subtext.

Key Insights:

• The novel exhibits a complex interplay of repressed homoerotic desire beneath a facade of asserted heterosexuality.
• Storytelling about heterosexual acts functions as a primary mode of expressing intimacy between men.
• Linguistic devices, such as puns, reinforce the homoerotic undercurrents in Miller's work.

Outlook:

• This reading complicates understandings of sexuality in modernist literature, even by authors with documented homophobic and sexist views.
• It encourages a re-evaluation of "Tropic of Cancer" and potentially other works, considering latent queer expressions.
• Further research could explore the broader implications of continuous sexuality in 20th-century American fiction.