Book contents
- Elizabeth Bowen in Context
- Elizabeth Bowen in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Part I Genres
- Part II Aesthetics
- Part III Engagements
- Part IV Locations
- Part V Stances
- Chapter 21 Technology
- Chapter 22 War
- Chapter 23 Sexuality
- Chapter 24 Sound
- Chapter 25 Crime and Punishment
- Chapter 26 Cold War
- Part VI Identities
- Part VII Reputation
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 23 - Sexuality
from Part V - Stances
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2026
Edited by
Book contents
- Elizabeth Bowen in Context
- Elizabeth Bowen in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Part I Genres
- Part II Aesthetics
- Part III Engagements
- Part IV Locations
- Part V Stances
- Chapter 21 Technology
- Chapter 22 War
- Chapter 23 Sexuality
- Chapter 24 Sound
- Chapter 25 Crime and Punishment
- Chapter 26 Cold War
- Part VI Identities
- Part VII Reputation
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This essay situates Bowen’s fiction in relation to various early and mid-twentieth-century currents of thought about human sexuality. These include emergent ideas about sexuality and consciousness derived from sexology, Freud, and Nietzsche, along with evolving perspectives on homosexuality and heterosexuality, especially marriage, in intellectual and popular culture. In contemporary literary culture, these ideas were refracted through debates about censorship and modernist arguments for the potential of ‘serious’ literature to enact transformative and even revolutionary changes in consciousness. Bowen’s fiction exhibits an engaged but sceptical perspective on these developments, and this essay maps the various modes through which her novels, with their distinctive style, queer modern sexuality.
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- Elizabeth Bowen in Context , pp. 232 - 242Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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