English Studies Spring 2015

‘My Sin, My Soul’:

The Representation of Male Sexual Deviance in
Transgressive Fiction from 1910 to the Present
Day

2023393

BA Honours English Studies

Semester 8 full length dissertation

Supervisor: Dr Sarah Parker

Number of words: 15,354

Current Address:
10D Wallace Street
Stirling
FK8 1NP

Division of Literature and Languages

University of Stirling
2015
 Contents

Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................................... i
Declaration........................................................................................................................................................................ i
Abstract.............................................................................................................................................................................. ii
Academic History for Submission with Dissertation................................................................................iii
Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................... 1
Homosexuality................................................................................................................................................................ 9
Fetishism......................................................................................................................................................................... 20
Masturbation................................................................................................................................................................ 31
Paedophilia.................................................................................................................................................................... 39
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................................... 50
Appendix One............................................................................................................................................................... 54
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................................. 55
 i

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Dr Sarah Parker for the support and advice she provided throughout

my dissertation. Her counsel was invaluable, and her patience was never-ending.

I would also like to thank Dr Adrian Hunter for assisting me in the conception of my

thesis. Also, thanks to Dr Matt Foley and Dr Bethan Benwell for their help during the

academic year.

I would also like to acknowledge my fellow English students, who have shared this

experience with me, especially Peter Buchanan, Lauren McCombe, Graham Robertson,

and Thomas Irwin. I wouldn’t have enjoyed writing this dissertation half as much if it

wasn’t for their advice and support. Particular thanks to Darren McNeil for providing

me with appropriate reading material, and Aidan Miller for his proofreading skills.

Exceptional thanks to Xander McDade, and my mother, Lynne Love, who have been my

rocks this year. I couldn’t have done this without them.

Declaration

I declare that this thesis is my own work and that all critical and other sources (literary

and electronic) have been specifically and properly acknowledged, as and when they

occur in the body of my text.

Signed: Date:
 ii

Abstract

In this dissertation, I will discuss the representation of sexual deviance in transgressive

fiction, and its relation to the social norms and standards instilled on men between

1910 and the present day. The male sexual deviant will be examined across four

sexual deviances; homosexuality, fetishism, masturbation, and paedophilia.

I will discuss male homosexuality firstly, looking at the representation of

homosexuality as a transgression relative to social surroundings, and creating a link

between these representations and the genre of transgressive fiction.

Secondly, I will discuss fetishism using a two-fold approach – focusing on

fetishism as a collective term for sexual deviances, then looking at BDSM. The male

fetishist will be examined, firstly as a participant in fetishist behaviour, and secondly as

a dominant in BDSM practise. I will correlate these representations to tropes aligned

with transgressive fiction.

The third chapter will focus on masturbation, and correlate its representation

in relation to ‘gross-out’ and horror fiction to transgressive fiction. I will also examine

whether this is impacted by social attitudes regarding masturbation, and consider the

use of public and private spheres.

Finally, I will discuss paedophilia, and how it is represented in Nabokov’s Lolita.

I will consider the effect this portrayal has on the reception of paedophilia as a subject

matter in this text, and discuss how Nabokov’s narrative affects the conveyance of the

male paedophile.
 iii

University of Stirling

School of Arts and Humanities, English Studies

Academic History for Submission with Dissertation

NAME: ………………………………………. REGISTRATION NO: ……………

(Please Print)

MODULE CODE MODULE TITLE

Sem 4: ENG9WI: Writing and Identity

ENG9WL: Writing and Language

EUC9BB: Post-War European Cinema

Sem 5: ENG9HB: Restoration and Eighteenth Century, 1660-1790

ENG9HD: Victorian Literature and Culture

ENG9HE: Modernism and Modernity

Sem 6: ENG9C1: Creative Writing I

ENG9G1: Genre I

ENG9N1: Nations and Traditions I

Sem 7: ENGU9C2: Creative Writing II

ENGU9G2: Genre II

EUCU9C7: Dissertation Preparation and Critical Writing

Sem 8: ENGU9A8: English Studies Dissertation

SAP/out of Phase CSTU936: Violence and Representation: Literature and Drama

units
 1

Introduction

This dissertation will examine the representation of sexual deviance in transgressive

fiction, and its relation to the social norms and standards instilled on men between

1910 and the present day. Murray S. Davis states that ‘sex is an either/or

phenomenon – appealing or appalling, rarely in between’ – an accurate statement

when discussing sex in literature1. ‘Sex’ as a concept is subjective and fluctuating, with

an act only considered deviant if deemed to be non-compliant with the social

contextual norms of a specific societal standard. Sexual deviance relates directly to

transgression, through representation of sexually deviant acts and lifestyles in

literature. Rene Chun, journalist for The New York Times, offers a definition for

transgressive fiction:

A literary genre that graphically explores such topics as incest and other
aberrant sexual practices, mutilation, the sprouting of sexual organs in various
places on the human body, urban violence and violence against women, drug
use, and highly dysfunctional family relationships, and that is based on the
premise that knowledge is to be found at the edge of experience and that the
body is the site for gaining knowledge.2

1
Murray S. Davis, Smut: Erotic Reality/Obscene ideology (University of Chicago Press: Chicago
and London, 1983) pp. 87
2
Rene Chun, as cited in Anne H. Soukhanov, 'Transgressive Fiction: Word Watch', The Atlantic,
(1996) <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/12/word-watch/376751/>
[accessed 13 April 2015]
 2

Robin Mookerjee, a writer specialising in literary commentary on transgression and

transgressive fiction also states that ‘transgressive fiction sets out to reject beliefs

considered assumptive for any member of the culture, subculture, or group of which

one is a presumed member.’3 The rejection of societal participation creates a sense of

alienation and isolation for the ‘outsider’, and reveals how the outsider perceives

themselves and others. Non-compliance to the wider social order correlates with how

they express themselves sexually, opening up the theme of sexual deviance for

exploration.

Freedom is a universally valued concept. However, it must be acknowledged

that with freedom comes certain restraints, either instilled by society, the law, or

ourselves. Sex is one such expression of freedom, but one that has limits. Robin

Mookerjee discusses the treatment of sex and sexual deviance in transgressive fiction:

Sexual domination […] lends a controversial quality to literary fiction […]

because it attracts strong opinions from every side of the political and cultural
spectrum. Transgressive satirists treat flashpoint subjects without taking any
kind of moral stand and treat bizarre behaviour as if it were absolutely normal.
(Mookerjee, pp. 2)

The depiction of sexual deviance acts as a sounding board for social opinion, providing

a two-way system of self-expression. There is a sentiment of freedom in sexual

expression, both physical and literary, and transgressive fiction depletes restraints

preventing authors from discussing such acts. Transgressive fiction focuses on

characters confined by societal norms and expectations, and who seek to escape this

through. As a genre, transgressive fiction allows authors to break free from the societal

standards that deem their writings ‘deviant’ or ‘obscene’. As Mookerjee states,

‘transgression is an assertion of freedom, but each author has a peculiar, unattainable

3
Mookerjee, R., Transgressive Fiction: The New Satiric Tradition (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2013) pp. 102
 3

vision of freedom’ (Mookerjee, pp. 72), which proves relevant in discussion of

portrayals of sexual deviance.

The discussion of sexual deviance requires exploration of sexology and

psychosexual theory. Throughout the chapters, theories relevant to acts of sexual

deviance are discussed to contextualise medical attitudes regarding the act which may

affect its representation in literature. Sexology is concerned with the formation of

sexuality and its enactment by sexual beings. The complex nature of sexuality allowed

for sexologists to discuss the definitions of sexual deviance. We can gain a

comprehensive idea of the intricate and complex spectrum of human sexuality through

Michel Foucault’s philosophies. In History of Sexuality (1976), he describes the onset of

sexological theories and the desire to assign identities and characteristics to certain

acts at a time where society was bound by the stoic restraints of the Victorian period:

So too were all those minor perverts whom nineteenth-century psychiatrists

entomologised by giving them strange baptismal names: there were Krafft-
Ebing’s zoophiles and zooerasts, Rohleder’s auto-monosexualists; and later,
mixoscopophiles, gynecomasts, presbyophiles, sexoesthetic inverts, and
dyspareunist women.4

Foucault highlights the complexities of human sexuality and the need for sexologists to

label identities as ‘deviant’ and ‘abnormal’. The scientific obsession with labelling

reinforces the notion of the ‘outsider’ in transgressive fiction. The following chapters

will discuss the need for labelling and how this creates a distinct differentiation

between the ‘norm’ and the ‘deviant’ sexual identities.

In connection to the relationship between sexual deviance and transgression,

Wilhelm Stekel, a follower of Freud’s psychology, separated the ‘normal’ paraphilic acts

from the ‘extreme’. He states that acts become deviant and perhaps problematic when

4
Foucault, M., The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Peregrine Books: Harmondsworth,
1987) pp. 43
 4

those engaged in sexually deviant acts ignore or discredit the value of the human

experience, and does not seek pleasure in the human aspects of sex:

They become pathological only when they have pushed the whole love object
into the background and themselves appropriate the function of a love object,
e.g., when a lover satisfies himself with the possession of a woman's shoe and
considers the woman herself as secondary or even disturbing and superfluous. 5

The relationship between the erotic and the transgressive is relevant to Stekel’s

argument, as he observes the concepts of the ‘decent’ and the ‘indecent’, in terms of

what is socially acceptable. Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s description of deviance: ‘When

opportunity comes knocking for sexual satisfaction, every expression of the sex drive

has to be declared perverse which does not reflect the goals of nature, i.e. ‘procreation’,

is reflected by Foucault and Stekel, who both agree that the definition of sexual

deviance directly correlates to the social attitudes towards sex and sexual practises. 6

Transgressive fiction accepts the ‘abnormal’ and renders it ‘normal’, thus highlighting

the social construction of sexual deviance and its potential to change.

The focus on male protagonists allows for the incorporation of law changes that

only affected homosexual men– it should be noted that lesbian sexuality was not

legislated against. Conversely, the Labouchere Amendment (1885) cited ‘gross

indecency’ as a criminal offence, and was used in practise to broadly to prosecute male

homosexuals in the instance where it was not possible to prove that they had

committed sodomy– and to explore male sexual identity in the twentieth and twenty-

first century.

Each chapter will explore a facet of sexual deviance, and analyse how it is

represented in transgressive texts. My chapters will appear in an order starting from

the least transgressive act (as perceived by society today) through to ones deemed

5
Stekel, W., The Homosexual Neurosis (Gorham Press Ltd.: USA, 1922)
6
Krafft-Ebing, M., in Hirschfeld, Magnus. The Homosexuality of Men and Women. Trans. Michael
A. Lombardi-Nash. (New York: Prometheus Books, 2000) pp. 42-43
 5

more abhorrent. The order of the chapters will determine how sexual deviance is

represented in transgressive fiction, and whether those representations in the

transgressive fiction genre have an impact on the acceptance of sexually deviant acts in

society. In short, is transgressive fiction an appropriate platform for the acceptance of

sexual deviance, or are sexually deviant acts depicted as transgressions in literature,

and rejected as ‘the norm’ in society? Mookerjee’s statement regarding the

presentation of sex in transgressive fiction is a relevant basis of discussion for the

overall argument of the dissertation:

In fictions about alienation and confusion, sex is viewed with surprising purity
– not moral purity but a presentation of sex best evoked by the term ‘libido’ […]
The libido is flexible and persistent in a universe of bloodless concepts; its
manifestations often put it in conflict with conventional identities and manners
of living. (Mookerjee, pp. 110)

The definition of sex as the ‘libido’ describes sex as more than a primal instinct, and

looks at the expression of sex as a means of escape from the cultural and social norms

instilled on the transgressive individual. Mookerjee’s description/definition of the

relationship between sex and transgression provides a basis of investigation.

In Chapter One, homosexuality will be discussed in relation to Forster’s

Maurice (written in 1914, published in 1971) and Isherwood’s A Single Man (1964).

Although neither of these texts were written as transgressive fiction, their depictions of

homosexuality prior to its decriminalisation in England in 1963 and the introduction of

the Consenting Adult Sex Bill in California in 1975, which by proxy repealed previous

laws against sodomy, could be considered transgressive itself, especially the

normalisation of what was at that time a criminal offence. Before the publication of

Maurice and A Single Man, homosexuality – sometimes cited as ‘sodomy’ or ‘gross

indecency’ – was a punishable act. The trial of Oscar Wilde in 1895 is a prime example

of how homosexuality was prosecuted. Tried under the Offences against the Person

Act 1861, which counted buggery and acts associated with buggery as ‘unnatural’, and
 6

the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, which extended the prohibition of buggery,

Wilde was charged with gross indecency, and sentenced to imprisonment and hard

labour. During Wilde’s trials, ‘Two Loves’ (1895) by Lord Alfred Douglas was

referenced by the prosecution, and assumed to be a euphemism for homosexuality.

When questioned about the true meaning of the phrase ‘the love that dare not speak its

name’, Wilde stated that:

‘The Love that dare not speak its name’ in this century is such a great affection
of an elder for a younger man […] It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as
pure as it is perfect.  It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of
Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. 
It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be
described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am
placed where I am now.  It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of
affection.  There is nothing unnatural about it. .7

In the first chapter, allusions to Ancient Greece will be examined in relation to

homosexuality and the notion of platonic relationships between men.

The second chapter will focus on fetishism with a two-fold approach. Firstly, it

will be considered as a collective term for numerous sexually deviant acts, with

Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye (1928) being used as the primary text for analysis.

Secondly, it will focus on the aspect of BDSM (bondage, discipline-dominance,

submission-sadism, masochism), and will discuss E. L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey

(2012). Sex as a commodity will be explored, and whether fetishism is becoming

normalised due to the commodification of sex. The reception of fetishism in the

twenty-first century will also be a topic of focus, and will incorporate instances where

fetishism has been adopted into mainstream publication, but the practice of it is still

prohibited. For example, in 2014, the UK Government issued an amendment to the

2013 Communications Act banning specific sexual acts – most of which are associated

7
‘The Criminal Trials of Oscar Wilde: Transcript Excerpts: The First Criminal Trial’ Famous
World Trial: The Trials of Oscar Wilde (April 26 to May 1895) Transcript.
<http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/Crimwilde.html> [accessed on 9 April
2015]
 7

with the BDSM and fetishism culture – from being filmed or broadcast in pornography 8.

Fetishism is being marketed as a transgression, and the discussion of fetishist acts in

fiction is relevant to how it is represented and accepted by audiences.

The penultimate chapter will focus on masturbation in literature, exploring

how masturbation is represented in Chuck Palahnuik’s short story ‘Guts’ in Haunted

(2005). The main argument will focus on masturbation being accepted as a natural act

of sexual release, yet still being considered a transgressive theme of discussion in

literature, in relation to erotica or ‘gross-out’ fiction. In relation to the focus on male

sexual deviance, Palahnuik’s ‘Guts’ appears to flip gender norms, and exposes the

vulnerability of men, and also the dangers of the negative conditioning instilled by

society regarding masturbation. Jeffrey A. Sartain and Courtney Wennerstrom, co-

writers of ‘Invisible Carrots and Fainting Fans: Queer Humour and Abject Horror in

‘Guts’’ suggest that:

The teenagers’ masturbatory experiments and their subsequent failures

represent the fear and ignorance that surrounds any alternative expression of
sexuality.9

Sartain and Wennerstrom demonstrate a wider societal problem with masturbation,

and outline some of the difficulties faced in the acceptance of sexual acts that are

deemed outside of the norms of a specific society.

The last chapter will focus on representation of paedophilia, by examining

Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1954). As a concept, paedophilia is still considered

extremely transgressive in Western society, especially with the introduction of child

protection laws in Britain, namely the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which increased the

8
Hooton, C., ‘A long list of sex acts just got banned in UK porn’, (2014)
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/a-long-list-of-sex-acts-just-got-banned-in-uk-porn-
9897174.html> [accessed 28 March 2015]
9
Sartain, J.A., and Wennerstrom, C., ‘Invisible Carrots and Fainting Fans: Queer Humour and
Abject Horror in ‘Guts’’ in Sartain, J.A., Sacred and Immoral: On the Writings of Chuck Palahniuk
(Cambridge Scholars Publishing: UK, 2009) pp. 162
 8

level of public condemnation towards those who engaged in sexual relations with

minors. The discussion of paedophilia as a medical condition will be examined, and

argument of paedophilia as a controllable perversion will be applied throughout the

chapter.

In conclusion, the main strand of argument will be to describe the

representation of sexual deviance practiced by male protagonists in relation to the

tropes of transgressive fiction, and to correlate transgressive fiction and sexual

deviance. I will also show how the literary representations of male sexual deviance

affect the public perception and acceptance of sexually deviant acts, and how the

representation of sexual deviance in transgressive fiction affects the reception of such

acts as part of societal norms.

 9

Homosexuality

This chapter will discuss difficulties faced by homosexual men in Maurice and A Single

Man. Looking at the concealment of homosexuality and conformity to heterosexual

norms, social and internalised hatred, and loneliness, discussion will be made into the

positive representations of homosexual relationships, and the authors’ attempts to

normalised homosexuality. Finally, it will consider the allusions to Ancient Greece,

focusing mostly on Maurice, and the relation to homoeroticism.

There are thematic correlations between transgressive and gay fiction. Themes

of rebellion, escapism, alienation, the refusal to participate in society, and the rejection

of societal norms are factorial in both. Mark Lilly, an academic closely involved in the

gay rights movement, states that:

[…] people like Forster, Isherwood and Leavitt, are reformers rather than
rebels. They speak calmly, trying to move or cajole the reader into tolerant
attitudes and a renunciation of prejudice.10

Lilly highlights that whilst gay writers rejected the norms of their respective social

surroundings, their means differed; rebellion and the call for complete social change,

and reformation of society and the adaptation to the homosexual lifestyle were two

forms of social rejection explored by writers of gay fiction, each holding similarities

10
Lilly, M., Gay Men’s Literature in the Twentieth Century, ed. by Mark Lilly (Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 1993) pp. xi
 10

with transgressive fiction writers. Before legal changes decriminalised homosexuality

in England in 1963, and in California in 1975 with the introduction of the Consenting

Adult Sex Bill, depictions of same-sex relationships were transgressive. Although

homosexuality was not described negatively or hyperbolically in Maurice or A Single

Man, it was still portrayed as a transgression from heterosexuality, and not portrayed

as an aspect of normality.

In Sexual Inversion (1901), Havelock Ellis acknowledged the cultural

differences regarding acceptance of homosexuality as a norm, and concluded that

social acceptance of homosexuality is dependent on the society in question. The term

‘sexual inversion’ was used to describe attraction between members of the same sex:

Sexual inversion, as here understood, means sexual instinct turned by inborn

constitutional abnormality toward persons of the same sex. 11

Expanding upon Ellis’ definition of ‘sexual inversion’, he explains homosexuality as a

‘switching of the souls’, with a female soul residing in a male’s body. Referring to

sexual inversion as ‘abnormality’, he discusses homosexuals as victims of this

perversion, although stating that it is a trait present from birth, not a result of

socialisation. However, homosexuals have continuously been penalised through social

and legal means, through incarceration for sodomy and homosexual acts. Dennis

Altman argues that although homosexuals have been accepted, homosexuality as a

concept has not, and this is reflected in A Single Man (1964) and Maurice (written in

1914, and published in 1971).12 A common trope in transgressive fiction is the

depiction of characters confined by their identities, seeking illicit and/or taboo means

of expressing their true identities. In A Single Man and Maurice, both protagonists seek

to break free of social and heteronormative confines, and to embrace their

11
Ellis, H., Sexual Inversion (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company Publishers, 1901) pp. 1
12
Altman, D., Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation (Australia: Angus and Robertson, 1972)
 11

homosexuality. Both novels are explicitly transgressive, depicting characters who

partake in lifestyles considered taboo at the time they were written.

Written at separate times of turmoil for homosexual men, Maurice and A Single

Man reflect the differing social attitudes of their respective times. Although written in

1914, Maurice wasn’t published until 1971 as per Forster’s request not to publish

during his lifetime. He stated ‘Unless the Wolfenden Report becomes law, it will

probably have to remain in manuscript’13. The Wolfenden Report (1957)

recommended that private homosexual acts between consenting adults should not be

considered criminal activity, concluding that the law should not police the private lives

of citizens. Forster’s comment implies that the positive ending of Maurice, where

Maurice and Scudder confirm their relationship (Forster, pp. 210), and positive

portrayals of homosexuality, could lead to their martyring. Maurice reflects the social

attitudes of 1914 England. Maurice’s visit to the doctor in search of a cure for

homosexuality is an example of this:

‘Now listen to me, Maurice, never let that evil hallucination, that temptation
from the devil, occur to you again.’ (Forster, pp. 139)

The religious connotations and condemnation inferred of homosexuality as an ‘evil’

and a ‘temptation’ display the negativity associated with deviance. Additionally,

homosexuality was considered a medical condition, an assumption validated by

sexological studies. As a predominantly Christian society, 1914 England was intolerant

of homosexuality, and it was a criminal offence for men to commit sexual acts with

other men. Maurice’s doctor refuses to tolerate his admission of homosexuality,

brushing off his statement and implying that Maurice should conceal, and take steps to

internalise his inclinations. The secrecy involved is explicit in Maurice, and holds

relevance to the social standards of the time.

13
Forster, E.M., Maurice (London: Penguin Group, 1972) pp. 218
 12

In relation to secrecy associated with homosexuality, A Single Man discusses

closeted homosexuals and relationships with their families:

An uncle of Jim’s whom he’d never met – trying to be sympathetic, even

admitting George’s right to a small honorary share in the sacred family grief –
but then, as they talked, becoming a bit chilled by George’s laconic yes, I see, yes;
his curt no, thank you, to the funeral invitation – deciding no doubt that this
much talked-of room-mate hadn’t been such a close friend, after all… 14

Following his partner’s death, George is unable to express grief, as he has been

assumed to be his partner’s flatmate, not lover. In addition to losing his partner,

George hides his relationship with Jim thereby conforming to heterosexist norms of the

time. By concealing his own sexuality, and preventing Jim’s family from discovering his,

Jim’s lives on in memory as an assumed heterosexual man rather than an outcast

individual and victim to his sexuality. George uses detachment as a coping mechanism,

in the belief that denying his relationship will displace his grief and allow Jim’s family

to find peace.

On the subject of ‘lavender marriage’, where gay men would marry a woman in

order to conceal their homosexuality, both A Single Man and Maurice discuss their

partners’ experimentation with heterosexuality. This situation highlights just one of

the many difficulties facing homosexual men before the legalisation of homosexuality.

In A Single Man, Isherwood touches upon George’s late partner’s affair with a woman:

Woman could only be fought by yielding, by letting Jim go away with her on
that trip to Mexico. By urging him to satisfy all his curiosity and flattered vanity
and lust (vanity, mostly) on the gamble that he would return (as he did) saying
she’s disgusting, saying never again. (Isherwood, pp. 75)

14
Isherwood, C., A Single Man (United Kingdom: Methuen & Co Ltd., 1964) pp. 101
 13

In order to ‘validate’ his homosexuality Jim sleeps with a woman. His affair ignites

George’s hatred of women, a launching him into a narrative tirade:

Gross insucking vulva, sly ruthless greedy flesh, in all the bloom and gloss and
arrogant resilience of youth, demanding that George shall step aside, bow down
and yield to the female prerogative, hide his unnatural head in shame. I am
Doris. I am Woman. I am Bitch-Mother Nature. The Church and the Law and
the State exist to support me. I claim my biological rights. I demand Jim.
(Isherwood, pp. 75)

George’s outburst is a result of his partner’s betrayal, rather than blanket misogyny.

His reference to Nature and the ‘natural’, as well as the Church, Law, and State, indicate

anger at the social attitudes condemn his lifestyle.

Concerning pressure to conform, Forster outlined methods adopted by

homosexual men in order to be accepted as heterosexual. Maurice’s former lover

married a woman in order to conceal his homosexual tendencies:

‘I have become normal – like other men, I don’t know how, any more than I
know how I was born. It is outside reason, it is against my wish.’ (Forster, pp.
112)

Clive also reflects on his relationship with Maurice, and how they should continue their

relationship:

He and his friend would arrange something that should include women. Sadder
and older, but without a crisis, they would slip into a relation, as evening into
night. (Forster, pp. 108)

Clive resigns himself to a heterosexual lifestyle, sacrificing his sexual feelings and love

for Maurice in order to conform to the heteronormative lifestyle. Sacrifice of the self

and the martyrdom displayed in Maurice by Clive is a reflection of the internal

struggles faced by homosexual men. Clive and Maurice ‘[…] proceeded outwardly like

other men. Society received them, as she receives thousands like them. Behind Society
 14

slumbered the Law’ (Forster, pp. 91). This suggests a societal acceptance of their

partnership, as long as it was as nonsexual as possible, despite the fact that the law was

not of homosexuality. As long as heteronormativity prevailed, they could proceed

through life as ‘normal’ in the eyes of society.

Hatred towards homosexuality is explored in A Single Man and Maurice.

Maurice alludes to his homosexuality when he visits the doctor in search of a cure:

‘I’m an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort.’ […] ‘I’ve been like this ever since I
can remember without knowing why. What is it? Am I diseased? If I am, I
want to be cured, I can’t put up with the loneliness any more, the last six
months specially. Anything you tell me, I’ll do. That’s all. You must help me.’
(Forster, pp. 139)

Maurice’s self-loathing is a recurrent theme and is written in tangent with his yearning

for a loving relationship. The desire for a cure was a sentiment shared by many

homosexual men, and ‘cures’ for homosexuality were developed. We see this later in

the novel when Maurice resorts to hypnotism: ‘I will experiment to see how deeply the

tendency is rooted. You will return (if you wish) for regular treatment later’ (Forster,

pp. 158). Intolerance of homosexuality is displayed throughout society with social,

religious, and medical remedies offered for the ‘homosexual condition’. As a

recognised homosexual figure, Oscar Wilde is used to indicate Maurice’s ‘condition’,

and by association solidifies the negative connotations connected to homosexuality.

Maurice’s desperation for a cure exposes the turmoil he experiences regarding his

identity, although it could be argued that his self-hatred stems from loneliness

following the end of his relationship with Clive.

In A Single Man, hatred towards homosexuals is explicit in George’s description

of social attitude and homophobia:

A local newspaper editor has started a campaign against sex deviates (by which
he means people like George). They are everywhere, he says; you can’t go into
a bar any more, or a men’s room, or a public library, without seeing hideous
 15

sights. And they all, without exception, have syphilis. The existing laws against
them, he says, are far too lenient. (Isherwood, pp. 23)

The description of ‘fear’ towards homosexuals is an accurate representation of

attitudes in 1960s America. Following the rise of McCarthyism and the ‘Lavender

Scare’, homosexuals were associated with Communists and treated with caution.

Senator Joseph McCarthy proclaimed, ‘If you want to be against McCarthy, boys, you’ve

got to be either a Communist or a cocksucker’, thus pairing homosexuality and

Communism as the two great threats to the American way of life 15. The secrecy

involved with George’s lifestyle, and the explicit intolerances depicted highlight the

troubles of being a homosexual man in a state where sexual deviates were demonised

and reproached.

The loneliness of the homosexual lifestyle is raised when Maurice visits his

doctor. Arguably, it is not a cure for his homosexuality that Maurice but for the

loneliness that accompanies a deviant lifestyle. Throughout Maurice, he accepts his

homosexuality, and engages in homosexual relationships with Clive and Alec.

However, the break between the ending of his relationship with Clive and the

beginning of his relationship with Alec incites a need for a ‘fix’, a cure of the loneliness

rather than the homosexuality. Isherwood describes the hardships of loneliness: ‘Yes:

the heart of his agony would be loneliness’ (Isherwood, pp. 120). Following the death

of his partner, George falls victim to the loneliness that cursed homosexuality before it

was accepted as a legitimate concept. The comparison to agony legitimises the

crippling effect of loneliness on individuals, and emphasises the depth of exclusion

directed towards homosexual men – both from society, and from themselves. The root

of George’s problems is loneliness, the ‘heart’ being the organ that operates the body,

and pumping loneliness into every aspect of George’s being. Death and separation are

two of the aspects of loneliness explored in Maurice and A Single Man, and both

15
Goldman, E.F., The Crucial Decade – And After America, 1945-1960 (New York: Vintage Books,
1960), pp. 142
 16

validate the issues experienced by the homosexual community during the respective

time periods of the novels.

Isherwood and Forster also depict positive representations of same-sex

relationships. In A Single Man, George recalls his relationship with Jim:

He pictures the evening he might have spent, snugly at home, fixing the food he
has bought, then lying down on the couch beside the bookcase and reading
himself slowly sleepy. At first glance this is an absolutely convincing and
charming scene of domestic contentment. Only after a few instants does George
notice the omission that makes it meaningless. What is left out of the picture is
Jim, lying opposite him at the other end of the couch, also reading; the two of
them absorbed in their books yet so completely aware of each other's presence.
(Isherwood, pp. 91)

The normalisation of George’s relationship contrasts with the homophobia described

throughout the novel. As George states in retaliation to a well-meant sentiment, ‘Jim

wasn’t a substitute for anything. And there is no substitute for Jim, if you forgive my

saying so, anywhere’ (Isherwood, pp. 17), and this is appropriated to hold up

homosexual relationships as just as valid as heterosexual ones, in the sense that a

homosexual partner is an equal and not a substitute for displaced emotions. The

depiction of a homosexual relationship as ‘domestic contentment’ paints a utopian

picture at a time of extreme intolerance, with domestication emphasising the normality

and the tedium of life within a relationship.

Isherwood highlights the connection between George and Jim. The use of

‘meaningless’ enforces the loss felt by George, and reinforces Jim as a life partner, and

not, as a substitute for anything. They are two people in a committed relationship and

in love, in their own rights. Forster goes further to conveying a positive representation

by honouring the love shared by Maurice and Clive:

During the next two years Maurice and Clive has as much happiness as men
under that star can expect. They were affectionate and consistent by nature,
and, thanks to Clive, extremely sensible. Clive knew that ecstasy cannot last,
but can carve a channel for something lasting, and he contrived a relation that
 17

proved permanent. If Maurice made love it was Clive who preserved it, and
caused its rivers to water the garden. He could not bear that one drop should
be wasted, either in bitterness or in sentimentality, and as time went on they
abstained from avowals (“we have said everything”) and almost from caresses.
Their happiness was to be together; they radiated something of their calm
among others, and could take their place in society. (Forster, pp. 91)

Forster also discusses the relationship between Maurice and Alec Scudder, the young

under-gamekeeper. Following a turbulent start to their relationship, involving

blackmail and Scudder’s almost-departure to Argentina, Scudder and Maurice realise

that they are in love:

‘I have shared with Alec,’ he said after deep thought.

‘Shared what?’
‘All I have. Which includes my body.’
[…]
‘I put it offensively,’ he went on, ‘but I must make sure you understand. Alec
slept with me in the Russet Room that night when you and Anne were away.’
(Forster, pp. 213)

Forster illustrates Maurice’s relationships with Clive and Alec in a way that enables the

reader to feel a sense of magnificence and majesty, in the sense that love is something

that should be celebrated. The emphasis on ‘sharing’ and the mutual connections

between Maurice and his consecutive partners detracts from the general attitudes

displayed in 1914 contradicting the myths and implications of homosexuals as deviants

and, as ‘subversives’. The portrayals of relationships in Maurice and A Single Man

strive to validate the homosexual identity by highlighting the intolerance of society

towards homosexuality whilst endeavouring to normalise homosexuality within

fiction.

Ancient Greece played a central role in validating homosexuality with Greek

society not distinguishing sexual behaviour by gender, but instead by the roles adopted

by the participants; either ‘active’ or ‘passive’. Taking this into consideration, Maurice

alludes to Ancient Greece as a way to validate homosexuality. Furthermore, the social

setting of Maurice is acknowledged, and the class systems and educational differences
 18

in the novel are concretised through the descriptions of classical education. During a

translation lesson, Maurice’s schoolteacher references Greek homosexuality – ‘Omit: a

reference to the unspeakable vice of the Greeks’ (Forster, pp. 50), and Maurice

discusses this statement in reference to Greek society:

‘I regard it as a point of pure scholarship. The Greeks, or most of them, were

that way inclined, and to omit it is to omit the mainstay of Athenian society.
(Forster, pp. 50)

Allusions to Greek society divulge a deeper relationship throughout Maurice, but also

create an upper-class tone, with an expectation that the audience should be as well-

read as the characters. Maurice is born into a life of privilege, and his nonchalant

conversational references to Ancient Greece reflect his upbringing and education. He

states ‘I have always been like the Greeks and didn’t know’ (Forster, pp. 62), thus using

Greek analogy to validate his sexuality. In relation to this, pederasty – the erotic

relationship between adult men and young boys is depicted later in the novel, with the

relationship between Maurice and Alec Scudder:

He supposed ‘Scudder’ was a façon de parler, as one might say ‘Ganymede’, for
intimacy with any social inferior was unthinkable to him. (Forster, pp. 212)

Reference to the myth of Ganymede, which served as a model of reference for the social

custom of pederasty, provides a further link between Ancient Greek notions of

homosexuality and the novel. As a symbol of homoeroticism in Greek mythology, the

comparison between Scudder and Ganymede by Clive validates the presence of

homosexuality and same-sex love, and highlights the differences in class, education,

and age between Maurice and Scudder.

In A Single Man, Isherwood references Ancient Greece to create a connection

with Greek tragedy:

 19

So let us be understanding, shall we, and remember that, after all, there were
the Greeks… Let us even go so far as to say that this kind of relationship can
sometimes be almost beautiful – particularly if one of the parties is already
dead; or, better yet, both. (Isherwood, pp. 16)

George suggests that homosexuality is acceptable, so long as it is accompanied by an

element of tragedy – whether that is a situation akin to Romeo and Juliet, with both

lovers dying or whether it is a tale of unrequited love through death. The parallel

between pain and beauty is a trope associated with Greek tragedy, utilised in A Single

Man, and to an extent, Maurice. Forster uses allusions to Ancient Greece to instil the

overall tone of the middle-class environment in which the novel is set, whereas

Isherwood uses the allusion to a specific part of Ancient Greek, that being Greek

tragedy, in order to reiterate the displacement of homosexuality in society.

Male homosexuality, as a transgression from the social norms is a facet of

sexual deviance that directly relates to the tropes of transgressive fiction, by way of its

use of illicit methods to escape from the confines of their social surroundings. The next

chapter will discuss fetishism, and I will explore how this is presented in transgressive

fiction, and how the male fetishists use this as a means of escapism and the breaking

free of social confines.

 20

Fetishism

Transgression from the norms of sexual practise aimed at reproduction is considered

deviant, and it is prudent to examine which factors cause deviation from these assumed

norms. Fetishism and paraphilia are paramount concepts to consider in the

exploration of male sexual deviance. M.J. Raymond offers a definition of fetishism:

Fetishism, or more accurately, 'erotic fetishism', is the tendency to be sexually

attracted by some special part of peculiarity of the body or by some inanimate
object. Of all the sexual aberrations, fetishism is one of the most intriguing,
perplexing, and varied.16

John Money further defines paraphilia as having a ‘dual existence, one in fantasy, and

one as a fantasy carried out in practise’17, and this encompasses fetishism as a whole. A

paraphilia is the thought of an act of fetishism, not just the physical act, and Money

argues that the duality of sexual fetishism can cause conflict within the self.

In Sigmund Freud’s Fetishism, he observed that fetishism is only shameful to

those who observe it from an external perspective, and that those who are fetishists

themselves are not affected negatively by their paraphillic desires:

16
Raymond M. J., Case of Fetishism Treated by Aversion Therapy in British Medical Journal,
Volume 2, Issue 4997 (British Medical Journal: United Kingdom, 1956) pp. 854
17
Money, John, Lovemaps: Sexual/Erotic Health and Pathology, Paraphilia and Gender
Transposition in Childhood, Adolescence and Maturity, 1st edn (Prometheus Books, 1986) pp. 39
 21

For though no doubt a fetish is recognised by its adherents as an abnormality, it

is seldom felt by them as the symptom of an ailment accompanied by suffering.
Usually they are quite satisfied with it, or even praise the way in which it eases
their erotic life.18

Freud argued that a fetish is only deemed abnormal by non-fetishists, and that shame is

derived from these observations. When social attitudes dictate that something is

abnormal, it is this that invokes shame rather than the fetish itself. As a result of

sexological doctrine, fetishist means of sexual gratification are perceived negatively by

society, as the connotations surrounding fetishism hold association with the abnormal

and perverse.

Fetishism spans across many sexual acts deviating from the norm. Story of the

Eye (1928) by Georges Bataille depicts a broad range of sexual fetishes, and shows how

they are perceived in an interpersonal and external capacity between the protagonists.

Explicit references to lewd sexual acts and fetishes, and the description of arousal as an

uncontrollable urge dehumanise the protagonists, regressing them to a primitive state,

as outlined in the early stages of their relationship:

We merely took any opportunity to indulge in unusual acts. We did not lack
modesty – on the contrary – but something urgently drove us to defy modesty
together as immodestly as possible.19

This description suggests that although the fetishes explored were for sexual

gratification, they were separate from the act of sex itself, in that they did not partake

in acts for mutual benefit, but only for themselves. The basis of this connection is

mutual objectification and lust, not emotion, and is depicted as a lack of differentiation

between an object of affection, and one of lust. The male narrator is reduced to his

18
Freud, Sigmund, Fetishism, trans. by J. Strachey, The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund
Freud (London: Hogarth and the Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1927), pp. 152
19
Bataille, G., Story of the Eye/L’Histoire de l’Oeil trans. Joachim Neugroschal (London: Penguin
Group, 1982) pp. 11
 22

identity as a fetishist, and the lack of name denies him an identity beyond his sexual

urges.

Throughout Story of the Eye, rape is discussed as a form of arousal. Rape occurs

between the narrator and Simone – although, it is fair to question ‘rape’ as an act if

both parties are willing and partaking in such an act with each other – and between the

narrator, Simone, and Marcelle:

Now the steps resumed, faster this time, almost running, and suddenly a
ravishing blond girl loomed into view: Marcelle, the purest and most affecting
of our friends. But we were too strongly contracted in our dreadful positions to
move even a hair’s breadth, and it was our unhappy friend who suddenly
collapsed and huddled into the grass amid sobs. Now only did we tear loose
from our extravagant embrace to hurl ourselves upon a self-abandoned body.
Simone hiked up the skirt, ripped off the panties, and drunkenly showed me a
new cunt, as lovely and pure as her own: I kissed it furiously while finger
fucking Simone, whose legs closed around the hips of that strange Marcelle,
who no longer hid anything but her sobs. (Bataille, pp. 12)

Bataille aestheticizes rape, and hyperbolises fetishism to display the empowerment of

the dominant, and the degradation of the submissive. The destruction of Marcelle’s

purity, and her humiliation, add to the arousal of a sadomasochistic encounter, and the

lack of restraint involved conveys sex as an overpowering urge, an appetite that must

be satisfied regardless of the consequences.

Story of the Eye employs an extended theme of ‘roundness’, both in title – ‘eye’ –

and in the main body of the text, indicating Simone’s sexual fascination with round

objects. Roland Barthes discussed the use of metaphor, highlighting the relationship

between the coinciding images of roundness and liquids associated with the eye:

Let us go back to our two chains of metaphor, that of the Eye (as we shall call it
for simplicity’s sake) and that of tears.20

20
Barthes, R., ‘The Metaphor of the Eye’ in Bataille, G., Story of the Eye/L’Histoire de l’Oeil trans.
Joachim Neugroschal (London: Penguin Group, 1982) pp. 123
 23

Bataille’s focus on the Eye as a metaphor allows him to create a discourse, displaying

sexual deviance and transgression through lexically complex means. Barthes

highlighted that ‘the first thing requiring explanation would be why the erotic theme is

never directly phallic (what we have here is ‘round phallicism)’ (Barthes, pp. 122),

Bataille’s use of non-phallic sexual imagery concretises his transgression from the

expected use of phallic imagery to describe sexual acts, and displays male sexual

deviance through a lack of phallicism. An example of spherical imagery occurs with

Simone’s fetish with round objects, in this instance, eggs:

That was the period when Simone developed a mania for breaking eggs with
her behind […] The moment my come shot out and trickled down her eyes, her
buttocks would squeeze together and she would come while I smeared my face
abundantly in her ass. (Bataille, pp. 14)

Simone’s obsession with eggs, and later bulls’ testicles, is portrayed as unnatural and

shocking, and the female obsession with ‘round phallicism’ is contrary to her

relationship to the male protagonist. The combination of metaphors – the Eye and

tears (liquid secretion) – depicts fetishism as a sexual concept, and an extended image

throughout Story of the Eye. Bataille exhausts the imageries of roundness and secretion

to link fetishism to transgressive fiction, and to display the role of the male narrator as

a character archetype, and to furthermore dehumanise him as nothing more than a

deviant.

The depiction of fetishism in Story of the Eye is correlative to transgression, and

as a forerunner in transgressive fiction, Bataille encompasses escape from social

confines through illicit and immoral means. Sexual acts described in Story of the Eye

are grotesque, and fetishist in extremity. Urolagnia – sexual pleasure from urination –

is explored in the first chapter:

“Can’t you pee up to my cunt?” she said.

“Yes,” I answered, “but with you like this, it’ll get on your dress and your face.”
 24

“So what,” she concluded. And I did as she said, but no sooner was I done than I
flooded her again, this time with fine white come. (Bataille, pp. 11)

Bataille confuses the boundaries between waste and productive fluids, and eroticises

urination, placing it on an equal level of eroticism with ejaculation. Relating to the

metaphors of the eye and tears, the secretion of fluids is accepted as sacred to the

protagonists, and as the epitome of sexual gratification. Sex is considered to be a

primal instinct, an urge that must be satisfied, and not as a means of procreation, so the

reproductive significance of semen is diminished as waste, just as urine was eroticised.

A contradiction exists, as both substances are valued and devalued equally, and both

hold an ambiguous worth to the fetishists.

Another aspect of fetishism described in Story of the Eye is necrophilia:

Simone saw I was getting a hard-on and she started tossing me off. I too
stretched out on the carpet. It was impossible to do otherwise; Simone was still
a virgin, and I fucked her for the first time, next to the corpse. It was very
painful for both of us, but we were glad precisely because it was painful.
(Bataille, pp. 43)

Suffering is a main aspect of arousal, with sexual gratification reached through

emotional and physical pain. There is a sadomasochistic element to Story of the Eye

and in the treatment of Marcelle, as her emotional torment prior to her suicide acts as

lubrication for the arousal of Simone and the narrator, and they reached sexual

satisfaction through her suffering. The pain of losing Marcelle and the reminder of

mortality allow Simone and the narrator to achieve penetrative intercourse, and the

loss of Simone’s virginity symbolises the loss of purity associated with their

involvement in Marcelle’s suicide, and her loss of innocence. The element of

punishment connected to pain provides Simone and the narrator with the desired

admonishment and sexual gratification that they feel they deserve. The arousal from

Marcelle’s corpse arises from her submission to their fetishes, and consolidates the

association with sexual deviance with transgressive fiction. Her ‘escape’ from life and
 25

from her role as a submissive to the narrator emphasises the trope of escapism from

the social norms as highlighted in transgressive fiction; Marcelle is used as a tool to fuel

the narrator’s breaking of social boundaries.

To focus on a particular aspect of fetishism associated with pain, I will discuss

the representation of BDSM. BDSM is a blanket term for sexual acts surrounding the

idea of the ‘dominant’ and the ‘submissive’ – simply put, the controller and the

controlled. Stekel explored the source of sadomasochistic fetishism:

An erroneous conception of the sadomasochistic complex makes pain the

central factor for consideration and occupies itself with the phenomenon of
gratification derived from pain.21

Stekel ascertains that pain is the main source of sadomasochism, and that these

paraphilias are ‘only a definite form of psychosexual infantilism’ (Stekel, pp. 7),

instilling that sadomasochistic acts are manifestations of childhood and the need for

discipline – whether an individual is an instigator or recipient of that discipline is

determinate of the sadistic or masochistic aspect of sadomasochism. Stekel condones

fetishism and sadomasochism, as long as it remains controlled. His depiction of

fetishism as sexual gratification for the self as opposed to an act of mutual sexual

benefit is contributory to negative attitudes surrounding fetishism, although his

arguments condone controlled fetishism, and are not wholly condemnatory of

fetishism.

To further describe BDSM, Money states that sadomasochistic fetishism

subdivides into five forms: corporal punishment, mutilation, bondage, servitude, and

humiliation’ (Money, pp. 46). BDSM has become a common focus in literature

following a surge in popularity for erotica in the early twenty-first century. E.L. James’

21
Stekel, W., Sadism and Masochism: The Psychopathology of Sexual Cruelty (1929) trans. Dr.
Domino Falls (USA: Solar Books, 2010) pp. 8
 26

Fifty Shades of Grey (2012) depicts the relationship between an experienced dominant

who introduces a virginal submissive to the world of BDSM:

He likes to hurt women. The thought depresses me.

“You’re a sadist?”
“I’m a Dominant.” His eyes are a scorching gray, intense.
“What does that mean?” I whisper.
“It means I want you to willingly surrender yourself to me, in all things.” 22
(James, pp. 100)

When Christian Grey reveals that he practises BDSM to Anastasia, her immediate

reaction is fear and apprehension, due to her lack of understanding. James uses

Anastasia as a gateway character to reflect the overall ignorance of society towards

BDSM, and reveals the hard facts of BDSM culture through Anastasia. The

demonization of BDSM and fetishism in Fifty Shades of Grey is implicit, but James’

portrayal of such acts has opened up the door to social acceptance of ‘alternative’

sexual practises.

The relationship between the dominant and the submissive is explored in Fifty

Shades of Grey, and although it is a factually questionable representation of BDSM

relationships, it has been beneficial as a mainstream gateway to sexual fetishism. It

reveals basic rules of play of BDSM; ‘safe words’ and the importance of consent

highlight safety in an environment of ‘controlled pleasure’:

“You can always use the safeword, Anastasia. Don’t forget that. And, as long as
you follow the rules, which fulfil a deep need in me for control and to keep you
safe, then perhaps we can find a way forward.” (James, pp. 436)

Safe words are used to exercise consent in BDSM relationships, and allow participants

to exert control over their own agency as sexual beings. In BDSM, consent is a must,

even though there is an unequal power relationship, and to an extent an ownership,

between the dominant and the submissive:

22
James, E.L., Fifty Shades of Grey (United Kingdom: Arrow Books Ltd, 2012) pp. 100
 27

“Well, apart from the NDA, a contract saying what we will and won’t do. I need
to know your limits, and you need to know mine. This is consensual,
Anastasia.” (James, pp. 103)

However, in some aspects, James has not acknowledged the importance of consent on

behalf of the submissive in Fifty Shades of Grey: “If you struggle, I’ll tie your feet, too. If

you make a noise, Anastasia, I will gag you.” (James, pp. 192) Consent is highlighted as

a vital factor in BDSM relationships, and Fifty Shades of Grey respects this, whilst using

consent as a form of power play. Christian’s domination of Anastasia is based on his

exertion of ownership and control over her, and he is aroused by her presentation of

unwillingness. Although Anastasia does not explicitly withdraw consent or use the safe

word, her conveyance of reluctance spurs Christian on, whilst adding to her pleasure in

being dominated. Fifty Shades of Grey has been associated with rape and sexual

violence, but I argue that James does respect consent as an aspect of BDSM, and uses it

as a tool to portray the power struggles between a dominant and new submissive.

Christian pushes Anastasia’s sexual boundaries as well as his own social boundaries,

and introduces a transgressive sexual practise to a partner who has never experienced

sadomasochism.

Anastasia is the personification of innocence and ignorance, and Christian Grey

personifies dominance, sexuality, and BDSM in general. The ‘deflowering’ of Anastasia

is symbolic of her introduction to BDSM, and to her position as a submission, where she

gives herself completely to the dominant:

“I want our arrangement to work, but you really need to have some idea what
you’re getting yourself into. We can start your training tonight – with the
basics. This doesn’t mean I’ve come over all hearts and flowers; it’s a means to
an end, but one that I want, and hopefully you do, too.” (James, pp. 110)

Culturally, virginity is seen as a woman’s value, and the loss of virginity is equal to the

loss of innocence and the sexualisation of the individual. The ‘giving’ of virginity is
 28

symbolised as a ‘gift’ to her partner, and especially in marriage, this is a social norm. In

Fifty Shades of Grey, Anastasia’s virginity is treated as a ‘situation’ (James, pp. 110), and

one that she must shed before being of value to Christian.

The relationship between love and sexual gratification is examined by James,

and I argue that she uses romance as Anastasia’s form of fetishism in Fifty Shades of

Grey to counteract Christian’s association with BDSM. Anastasia’s tangent examines

Christian and his first interaction with BDSM, when he occupied the role of the

submissive, and was dominated by an older woman in his teenage years:

And because of his fifty shades, I am holding myself back. The BDSM is a
distraction from the real issue. The sex is amazing, he’s wealthy, he’s beautiful,
but this is all meaningless without his love, and the real heart-fail is that I don’t
know if he’s capable of love. He doesn’t even love himself. I recall his self-
loathing, her love being the only form he found acceptable. Punished – whipped,
beaten, whatever their relationship entailed – he feels undeserving of love.
(James, pp. 472)

Anastasia believes that by engaging in BDSM, she will ‘save’ Christian, and normalise

him, reintroducing him to a ‘normal’ sexual and romantic relationship: ‘I can soothe

him, join him briefly in the darkness and bring him into the light.’ (James, pp. 504) This

nullifies the true meaning of engaging in BDSM, and invalidates the individual’s

relationship with a particular fetish. Christian is at times conveyed as the villain of

Fifty Shades of Grey; a portrayal that is harmful to the social acceptance of people who

are part of the BDSM community and the validity of BDSM practises. Anastasia’s lack of

consideration for Christian’s lifestyle further instils his fetish as a transgression from

the norm.

The marketization of what was once deemed a reproductive act shows the shift

in social attitudes towards sex in the last century. More awareness has been raised

about ‘alternative’ sexual practices, but misconceptions have been portrayed in the

media and literature. Alex Dymock argues that fetishism has been reinvented as ‘safe’

and the reality has been lost in translation.

 29

… while an increased consumption of erotic commodities previously

associated with sexual subcultures may seemingly demonstrate the
‘liberation’ of non-normative sexual acts, the means by which they are
marketed and sold demonstrate only that such acts have been
reimagined as ‘safe’ and ‘sane’ components of the institution of
heterosexuality.23

Although society is slowly becoming desensitized to fetishism, inaccurate portrayals

repress the realities of BDSM. The commodification of BDSM has been both beneficial

and harmful to the representation of sexual deviance in literature, and has involved the

evolution of BDSM as transgressive to a marketed form of literature.

Following its release, Fifty Shades of Grey has been adopted into mainstream

fiction, and dubbed ‘mummy porn’ – a genre of chick lit literature aimed primarily at

women who are of child-bearing age, or who have had children. It has opened up a

whole new genre of mainstream erotic fiction, with literary clones erupting from

writers such as Indigo Bloome and Sylvia Day, all containing similar tropes –

romanticised BDSM relationships, primarily heterosexual in nature, with a male

dominant. This genre differs greatly from the primal relationship described in Story of

the Eye, and whereas sex was paired with the grotesque in Story of the Eye, it has been

commoditised in Fifty Shades of Grey, and other books of that genre. BDSM and

fetishism have been portrayed as softcore erotica in Fifty Shades of Grey, and therefore

has been deemed more acceptable in society today in contrast to the somewhat

perverse nature of Story of the Eye. Whilst Story of the Eye is undoubtedly a

representation of male sexual deviance in transgressive fiction, Fifty Shades of Grey is

arguably a representation of a sexual transgression in fiction that has been adopted as

mainstream literature as a result of the commodification of BDSM. The time difference

between the publications of Story of the Eye and Fifty Shades of Grey highlights the

23
Dymock, A., Flogging sexual transgression: Interrogating the costs of the 'Fifty Shades' effect
(United Kingdom: University of Reading Press, 2013)
 30

dramatic change in social attitudes towards sex, displaying a change from fetishism as

a transgression to a commodity.

In relation to aspects discussed in this chapter, I will now discuss the

representation of male masturbation in transgressive fiction.

 31

Masturbation

If sex is an act of reproduction, masturbation deviates from this norm – an act based on

the release and pleasure of the self, not procreation. Depictions of male masturbation

in literature are linked with transgressive fiction, as autoeroticism is an act of escapism

from reality and social confines through sexual fantasy. Much like defecation, it is not a

topic discussed openly and is a private deed to be practised alone. Masturbation is

categorised as ‘deviant’ when represented, as the depiction of masturbation admits

that sex is not only reproductive or mutually beneficial between two people, but a form

of solitary sexual expression. In 2014, Rachel Schulkins discusses the treatment of

masturbation in Keats, Modesty and Masturbation:

The attack against masturbation as physically dangerous emerged from the

belief that something that is created in the mind and the imagination generates
excitement that cannot be physically gratified. The desire that springs from
imagination knows no outlet, and as such, it turns to an excessive and
consumptive yearning, accumulated in the mind and body. 24

Masturbation is sexuality in its rawest form, a celebration of the self as a sexual being.

However, social attitudes condemned it as an act of frustration in the lack of sexual

partner or as a sign of sickness, particularly in the nineteenth century and early

twentieth century. In 1870, Ellen G. White published A Solemn Appeal: Relative to

24
Schulkins, R., Keats, Modesty and Masturbation (United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.,
2014) pp. 61
 32

Solitary Vice, and the Abuses and Excesses of the Marriage Relation, and argued that ‘If

the practice [of self-indulgence] is continued from the age of fifteen and upward, nature

will protest against the abuse he has suffered, and continues to suffer, and will make

them pay the penalty for the transgression of his laws’25.

In psychosexual studies in the nineteenth century, masturbation was cited as a

cause of illness and sexual dysfunction. In 1886, Krafft-Ebing stated in Psychopathia

Sexualis:

Nothing is so prone to contaminate […] as the practise of masturbation in early

years. It despoils the unfolding bud of perfume and beauty, and leaves behind
only the coarse, animal desire of sexual satisfaction. 26

Krafft-Ebing condemned masturbation as a natural act, and set the tone of criticism

regarding its treatment. Sigmund Freud’s views on masturbation were not wholly

positive, but he viewed it as necessary step towards sexual maturity. Published in

1905, Freud’s theories on psychosexual development link masturbation to the phallic

stage of development, occurring pre-puberty, where the child discovers a new sense of

pleasure via the genitals. Freud argues that sexual instinct is driven towards

heterosexual intercourse during the genital stage, which is constant from puberty

throughout adulthood. Once an individual is psychosexually mature, they should ‘grow

out’ of masturbation.

However, Jeffrey Weeks argues that masturbation is a beneficial act, and that it

honours the self as a sexual being.

Masturbation is the sexuality of the modern self. It is protean, unbounded,

limited only by imagination. It is the sexuality of secrecy, of privacy, of excess.
It is self-governed, autonomous, autarchic. It is the sexuality of fantasy. It is a

25
White, E., A Solemn Appeal: Relative to Solitary Vice, and the Abuses and Excesses of the
Marriage Relation, ed. Elder James White (USA: Steam Press, 1870) pp. 24
26
Von Krafft-Ebing, R., Psychopathia Sexualis: The Classic Study of Deviant Sex, The Complete
English-Language Translation trans. Franklin S. Klaf (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2011) pp. 36
 33

denial of, or at least outside, the social...it represented the pursuit of pleasure
without social ties or mutual obligation. 27

Written in 2011, Weeks’ The Languages of Sexuality describes masturbation as

empowering. Differing from early theories and attitudes, Weeks accepts masturbation

as a facet of sexual identity, and a natural form of sexual expression. Aspects of

masturbation described by Weeks relate to themes in transgressive fiction; sexual

autonomy, escape from social confines, and the denial of social participation.

In literature, masturbation remains a taboo topic, and Chuck Palahniuk’s short

story ‘Guts’ in Haunted relates to the early ‘fear factors’ associated with masturbation.

Written in 2005, Haunted offers a recent representation of archaic attitudes towards

alternative sexual practices, and Palahniuk depicts these sexual acts as part of his

‘gross out’ fiction. Throughout ‘Guts’, there is a recurring theme of shame, and fear of

being discovered in a masturbatory position, although the possibility of being caught

could heighten the pleasure through risk-taking and voyeurism. It portrays

masturbation as an act that will cause the participant harm or embarrassment, and

does not consider the commonality of masturbation amongst individuals, especially

young men. Rosenfeld generalizes the social attitude towards masturbation, and the

way it is discussed:

Though masturbation is probably the most pervasive sexual outlet, it is an even

more taboo topic of discussion than of partnered sexual activity. And while
partnered sexual activity has perhaps an embedded openness in the very
nature of there being two participants (whether or not they are able to discuss
their activities openly), masturbation is a completely private and isolated
experience, difficult even to write about.28

The publication of masturbation as taboo detracts from the commonality of it and

hyperbolises it as deviant, and does not consider autoeroticism an socially acceptable

27
Weeks, J., The Languages of Sexuality (Oxon: Routledge, 2011) pp.114
28
Rosenfeld, J., Talmudic Re-readings: Toward a Modern Orthodox Sexual Ethic (USA: ProQuest
Information and Learning Company, 2008)
 34

alternative to paired sexual activity. Palahniuk’s descriptions of sexual acts – even

those accepted as the norm – associate sex with abnormality. Palahniuk describes

scenarios in ‘Guts’ involving adolescent males resorting to extreme measures to

experience intense autoerotic pleasure.

There are three distinct descriptions, each explicitly associated with the

dangers of masturbation, and the constant threat of discovery and shame. The first act

described is anal stimulation with a carrot:

A friend of mine, when he was thirteen years old he heard about “pegging”.
This is when a guy gets banged up the butt with a dildo […] At home, he
whittles the carrot into a blunt tool. He slathers it with grease and grinds his
ass down on it. Then – nothing. No orgasm. Nothing happens except it hurts. 29

Self-sodomy is an act of masturbation used to stimulate the prostate– an act that is

practiced, particularly by men, but one that is not discussed as openly as stimulation of

the penis. When partnered with a household item such as a carrot, the merging of the

public and the private spheres inspires the deviation from the norms of sex as a private

concept. This representation is not wholly deviant, and the only sense of shame is

instilled and experienced by the masturbator. Akin to the American Pie30 film series,

there are comic relief and gross-out factors on equal levels, and masturbation is used to

emphasise the stereotypes of the ‘horny teenage boy’, and overpowering sexual urges.

The feeling of shame tortures the adolescent, not the physical confrontation with his

parents. He is haunted by the ‘invisible’ or ‘ghost’ carrot on a daily basis.

The narrator recalls another incident highlighting the pains of masturbation,

focusing on the insertion of hardened candle wax into the urethra to maximize sexual

pleasure:

29
Palahniuk, C., ‘Guts’ in Haunted (London: Vintage, 2005) pp. 12-13
30
American Pie, dir. by Chris and Paul Weitz (Universal Pictures, 1999)
 35

Stoned and horny, he slips it down inside, deeper and deeper into the piss slit of
his boner. With a good hank of the wax still poking out the top, he gets to work
[…] Flat on his back in bed, things are getting so good this kid can’t keep track
of the wax. He’s one good squeeze from shooting his wad when the wax isn’t
sticking out anymore.
The thin wax rod, it’s slipped inside. All the way inside. So deep inside he
can’t even feel the lump of it inside his piss tube. (Palahniuk, pp. 15)

Palahniuk develops his representation of masturbation from embarrassing to life-

threatening, and emphasises the depravity of masturbation. References to drugs and

the age of the masturbator convey lack of responsibility, demeaning the autonomy

associated with masturbation by inferring that it occurs as a result of a drug-induced

state, or a lack of sexual understanding or maturity. Sex, drugs, and adolescence

contribute to both the ‘gross-out’ and transgressive fiction genres of ‘Guts’, as

Palahniuk has fused concepts associated with adulthood with childhood, creating an

uneasy tone, particularly with the use of profanity and explicit descriptions of sexual

acts. Using drugs and masturbation as a representation of escapism from social

confines, Palahniuk concretises the transgression from the norm.

The climactic description of masturbation outlines the narrator’s own life-

threatening experience:

The best part of Pearl Diving was the inlet port for the swimming-pool filter
and the circulation pump. The best part was getting naked and sitting on it […]
My dick hard and getting my butt eaten out, I do not need air […] My ass is
stuck. (Palahniuk, pp. 17)

The realisation that the narrator is trapped by his own innards through masturbation

emphasises the horror of ‘Guts’. As a genre, horror is faceted in ‘Guts’; personally

through shame and fear of discovery, ‘gross-out’ factors, gore (bearing similarities to

slasher fiction), and the possibility of death furthered by the implication that the

narrator would die a slow, painful death, alone as a result of autoeroticism.

Palahniuk reiterates the horror further by reintroducing the themes of shame,

and parental discovery:

 36

What my folks will find after work is a big naked foetus, curled in on itself […]
Tethered to the bottom by a thick rope of veins and twisted guts […]Floating
there, naked and dead. All around him, big milky pearls of wasted sperm.
Either that or my folks will find me wrapped in a bloody towel, collapsed
halfway from the pool to the kitchen telephone, the ragged, torn scrap of my
guts still hanging out the leg of my yellow-striped swim trunks. (Palahniuk, pp.
19-20)

Themes of mortality and shame are entwined with sexual pleasure, and Palahniuk

iterates that shame will always accompany masturbation. The true horror, apart from

the discovery of the narrator, is his sister’s pregnancy as a result of the narrator

masturbating in the family pool, and her exposure to his uncollected sperm. Moreover,

she has to abort her brother’s child as a result of his actions, thus demonstrating how

masturbation has affected those outside of the autoerotic experience of the

masturbator. The danger of masturbation is highlighted morally, through parental

discovery and his sister’s abortion; financially, through the need to use his college fund

to pay for emergency surgery; and physically, as one single act of masturbation has

irreversibly affected his health.

Palahniuk promotes the commercialization of the ‘gross-out’ genre and reverts

back to the early twentieth century social attitudes that condemn masturbation, but he

uses masturbation as a means of audience interaction. Palahniuk uses a common and

relatable topic to engage with a wide audience, and to gain notoriety in these specific

fields of literature. Palahniuk involves the audience, breaking the fourth wall in the

opening of ‘Guts’:

Inhale.
Take in as much air as you can.
This story should last about as long as you can hold your breath, and then just a
little bit longer. (Palahniuk, pp. 12)

The sharing of stories mirrors group acts of masturbation, especially amongst men, an

example being the ‘circle jerk’, which ‘consists of a group of males who form a circle
 37

and masturbate […] themselves simultaneously31. Palahniuk’s recitations of ‘Guts’ have

had adverse effects on audiences, and he uses masturbation as a performance topic, to

incite strong reactions from the audience, as described by Jeffrey A. Sartain and

Courtney Wennerstrom in ‘Invisible Carrots and Fainting Fans: Queer Humour and

Abject Horror in ‘Guts’:

To date, there is no evidence that anyone has ever lost consciousness, thrown
up, or shrieked from the act of merely reading ‘Guts’. Rather, the now well-
documented faintings and outbursts associated with this story seem confined
to public performances, particularly Chuck Palahniuk’s own recitations. 32

Palahniuk writes masturbation as transgressive fiction, and uses it to incorporate

audience participation, particularly with the narrative of traditional ‘story-telling’, and

this contrast is transgressive as it detracts from the privacy involved with

masturbation, and publicises autoeroticism as a performance for a wider audience.

Masturbation itself is not deviant, but the display of masturbation on a public

platform is. The difficulty to discuss masturbation as a release and as a celebration of

the self is linked to the indoctrinated attitude that anything that differs from the

accepted reproductive acts of sexual intercourse should remain private – sex is an act

of creation, not pleasure. Anything that does not result in the creation of life is a

deviation from the reproductive norm. The relationship between masturbation and

literature as displayed in ‘Guts’ spans across the concepts of the ‘private’ and the

‘performance’, with a private act being displayed as a performance for an audience.

The representation of male sexual deviance in ‘Guts’ correlates with transgressive

fiction, as masturbation is a form of escapism by use of sexual fantasy and sexual

release.

31
Mechling, J., On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth (University of Chicago
Press: Chicago, 2001) pp. 306
32
Sartain, J.A. and Wennerstrom, C., ‘Invisible Carrots and Fainting Fans: Queer Humour and
Abject Horror in ‘Guts’ in Sartain, J.A., Sacred and Immoral: On the Writings of Chuck Palahniuk
(United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009) pp. 159
 38

The final chapter will focus on the representation of the male paedophile, and

will discuss how this is represented in transgressive fiction.

 39

Paedophilia

Associated with shame and guilt, paedophilia as a perverse orientation is considered

extremely transgressive and taboo in Western society, especially in recent years. In

order to discuss paedophilia, it must be recognised that paedophilia itself is not an act –

it is a paraphilia, considered abusive only if acted upon. Krafft-Ebing states that ‘it is

psychologically incomprehensible that an adult of full virility and mentally sound

should indulge in sexual abuses with children’33, and goes on to state:

Irresponsibility should, as a rule, not be claimed in these cases, for experience

teaches that paedophilic impulses can be mastered, unless a weakening or total
loss of will power has been superinduced by pathological conditions, such as
neurasthenia or syphilitic dementia.[…]Nevertheless, a criminal enquiry should
always be made in flagrant cases of erotic love of children.[…]At any rate these
unfortunate beings should always be looked upon as a common danger to the
welfare of the community, and put under strict surveillance and medical
treatment. The proper place for such persons is a sanatorium established for
that purpose, not a prison. (Krafft-Ebing, pp. 374)

His attitude towards paedophilia condemns and sympathises with the paedophile, as

he calls for the imprisonment and criminal prosecution of paedophiles, and also that

they receive medical treatment. In relation to his theory that ‘paedophilic impulses can

be mastered’, he infers that paedophilia is not a fate, and that it can be controlled,

which is a contradiction to the medical analogy that depicts paedophilia as a mental

33
Von Krafft-Ebing, Richard, Psychopathia Sexualis: The Classic Study of Deviant Sex, trans. by
Franklin S. Klaf (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2011) pp. 369
 40

illness. The classification of paedophilia as a mental illness in 1952 34 led to the

argument that paedophilia is an illness, allowing for a sentiment of sympathy to those

who experience paedophilic feelings.

Nabokov’s Lolita attracted particular controversy due to its sympathetic

portrayal of a paedophile. Scandal surrounds Lolita, and the candid fashion in which

Nabokov explores paedophilia, and his creation of sympathy for Humbert Humbert

rather than Lolita, even though she is the victim of Humbert’s perverse advances. To

validate this assumption, it is significant that most of the cover art of published copies

of Lolita features a young, sexualised woman, often in a seductive or teasing position,

instilling the desired portrayal of Lolita as a ‘nymphet’ and a tease, and detracting from

Humbert’s paedophilic identity (see Appendix 1). As the story is focalised through

Humbert, it is understandable that there would be a positive portrayal of his character,

as not many people denounce themselves or their actions. Lolita is very much a

‘manifesto’ – it is a character study presented as a court case, channelled from a deeply

perverse psyche. It is a release and a justification of the actions and thoughts of a

pervert who believes that he is a victim to his own vices, and this channelling of events

affects how sympathetically paedophilia is treated. Throughout Lolita, the tropes of

paedophilia are distinguished and explored, and Humbert discusses his perversion

frankly. There is a distinct ‘progression’ of paedophilia, with each stage increasing in

depravity. Humbert’s interest in young girls is illustrated through self-realisation and

justification of his actions, the objectification of children, grooming, and eventually

sexual activities with a child.

As a paedophile, Humbert experiences many incidences of self-realisation,

which are woven through the narrative of Lolita. He realises that he is, in his own

words, a ‘pervert’, a phrase that he uses to describe himself throughout the novel.

34
American Psychiatric Association Committee on Nomenclature and Statistics, Diagnostic and
statistical manual of mental disorders, First Edition (Washington, D.C: The American Psychiatric
Association, 1952) pp. 39.
 41

Humbert goes through life questioning his deviant behaviour, yearning for an

explanation of his urges:

I leaf again and again through these miserable memories, and keep asking
myself, was it then, in the glitter of that remote summer, that the rift in my life
began; or was it my excessive desire for that child only the first evidence of an
inherent singularity? When I try to analyse my own cravings, motives, actions
and so forth, I surrender to a sort of retrospective imagination which feeds the
analytic faculty with boundless alternatives and which causes each visualised
route to fork and re-fork without end in the maddeningly complex prospect of
my past. I am convinced, however, that in a certain magic and fateful way Lolita
began with Annabel.35

Humbert often tries to offer justification of his urges, pinning the blame on those he

desires rather than on his own nature. His theories regarding the onset of his

paedophilia stem back to his adolescence; to his first sexual encounter as a teenager

with Annabel, the daughter of family friends. He cites Annabel as the ‘nymphet’ who

sparked his obsession with pre-pubescent girls, and eventually his obsession with

Lolita:

Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might
have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-
child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita
was born as my age was that summer. (Nabokov, pp. 9)

Humbert alludes to his relationship with Annabel in the opening lines of Lolita, and

reiterates that his relationship with Lolita is not his first flirtation with paedophilia.

However, Humbert’s relationship with Annabel occurred when they were both

adolescents; his relationship with Lolita is clearly between an adult and a child – the

age gap between Lolita and Humbert spans decades rather than months. The

comparison between a teenage sexual encounter and an incidence of paedophilia is

perverse in itself, as well as the action.

35
Nabokov, V., Lolita (United Kingdom: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1959) pp. 13-14
 42

The objectification of minors comes into effect in Lolita in two strands – a

general objectification of young girls, and an objectification of Lolita herself. The

opening lines of Lolita – ‘Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.’

(Nabokov, pp. 9) set the tone of glorification of Lolita, as well as the implication that

Humbert’s sexualisation of Lolita is wrong (a ‘sin’). When discussing his attraction to

young girls, Humbert questions the origin of his ‘perverse’ urges:

Now I wish to introduce the following idea. Between the age limits of nine and
fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travellers, twice or
many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but
nymphic (that is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate
as “nymphets”. (Nabokov, pp. 16)

Humbert projects the blame of his perversion onto the victims themselves, rather than

engaging in introspection, and addressing his own perversions. The theme of ‘victim-

blaming’ is threaded throughout, and the demonisation of Lolita and young females is a

common occurrence. The sexualisation of prepubescent girls is explained through a

pseudo-scientific hypothesis, offering a justification of their lure. Humbert objectifies

young ‘nymphets’ as a species, and provides anecdotal evidence of his sexual

preference prior to and during his connection with Lolita. The dehumanisation of girls,

through the reference to them as ‘creatures’ (Nabokov, pp. 16), is another level of

objectification that accompanies paedophilia, as to acknowledge the sexual attraction

to children is to address that there is a level of perversion within. To build upon the

general objectification of the ‘nymphet’, Humbert reiterates his attraction to

prepubescent girls when he describes his adoration of Lolita:

I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be
forever Lolita. She would be thirteen on January 1. In two years or so she
would cease being a nymphet and would turn into a ‘young girl,’ and then, into
a “college girl” – that horror of horrors. The word “forever” referred only to my
own passion, to the eternal Lolita as reflected in my blood. (Nabokov, pp. 65)
 43

Humbert is in love with the idea of Lolita, rather than Lolita herself. The ‘nymphet’ is

Annabel refigured, and Humbert projects his teenage lust for Annabel onto

prepubescent girls, even as an adult himself. With Lolita, he places her on a pedestal of

adoration, mounted by her tainted innocence and the sense of premature lust that he

has pinned upon her, and he cannot bear that she will grow into a woman and embrace

her sexuality. His objectification of Lolita is based on her identity as a ‘nymphet’, and

not as a person. He refers to the ‘eternal Lolita’, and declares that this Lolita is the one

who ignites his bloodlust.

Although Humbert has been explicit with his lustful urges towards Lolita, he

has not overtly acted upon them. However, an action associated with paedophilia is

‘grooming’, which means to ‘befriend or influence (a child), now esp. [sic] via the

Internet, in preparation for future sexual abuse’36. The contemporaneous concept of

‘grooming’ suffices to explain Humbert’s actions. Humbert uses his relationship with

Lolita’s mother to become closer to Lolita, with the intention of engaging in sexual

activities with her:

There may have been times – there must have been times, if I know my
Humbert – when I had brought up for detached inspection the idea of marrying
a mature widow (say, Charlotte Haze) with not one relative left in the wide gray
world, merely in order to have my way with her child (Lo, Lola, Lolita).
(Nabokov, pp. 69-70)

Following Mrs Haze’s letter to Humbert, where she outlines that unless Humbert

becomes her lover/husband, he will have to find alternative living arrangements;

Humbert uses her infatuation with him to his advantage, and seizes the opportunity to

become a father-figure to Lolita, and to secure an authoritarian relationship with the

child:

36
Oxford English Dictionary, Definition of ‘Grooming’
<http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/81721?redirectedFrom=grooming#eid2526501> [accessed
on 29 March 2015]
 44

I imagined (under conditions of new and perfect visibility) all the casual
caresses her mother’s husband would be able to lavish on his Lolita. I would
hold her against me three times a day, every day. All my troubles would be
expelled, I would be a healthy man. “To hold thee lightly on a gentle knee, and
print on thy soft cheek a parent’s kiss…” Well-read Humbert! (Nabokov, pp. 70)

Humbert’s reference to Byron and the Romantic mythologies of the child display a

learned persona, and depict Humbert as an educated, scholarly individual who could

choose to place himself above such primal pleasures. He compares his love to parental

love, and perhaps uses the marriage to Mrs Haze as a cure for his paedophilia as well as

an opportunity to explore his fantasies. The contradictory elements of Humbert’s

intentions are brief in this instance, as he soon relishes the situation that has

manifested. The chance to become Lolita’s parental guardian ignites Humbert’s

temptations, and opens up a whole new series of opportunities to ‘groom’ Lolita into

becoming his lover. His tolerance of Mrs Haze is a small price to pay to be closer to the

girl, and he adopts the role as a step-parent in order to satisfy his urges. After her

mother’s murder, Lolita is taken into the care of Humbert, and he tries to blackmail and

entice Lolita into continuing with an established sexual relationship:

I am your daddum, Lo. Look, I’ve a learned book here about young girls. Look,
darling, what it says. I quote: the normal girl – normal, mark you – the normal
girl is usually anxious to please her father. (Nabokov, pp. 150)

Humbert uses Lolita’s naivety and innocence advantageously, twisting a general

statement to convince Lolita that pleasing her ‘father’ through sexual means is

perfectly normal and acceptable, as it is the job of ‘normal’ girls to please their father,

and something she should embrace. Humbert’s discourse of ‘normality’ fits in with the

medical and scientific discourses of ‘normality/perversion’ discussed in Lolita, and he

insinuates that if Lolita is not ‘normal’, then she must be perverse, when in reality, it is

Humbert himself who is perverse, in both his actions and his thoughts. Lolita is a hard

character to pin down, as the audience see her through her abuser’s justifications and
 45

perceptions of Lolita – however, this does not subtract from Lolita’s position as a victim

of paedophilia and exploitation. By manipulating Lolita into having sex with him,

Humbert is abusing her mentally as well as sexually.

Humbert’s pursuit of Lolita as a lover climaxes when he takes her to a hotel

after collecting her from summer camp, following her mother’s murder. He doesn’t

reveal her mother’s death until after he has engaged in sexual intercourse with her:

I had thought that months, perhaps years, would elapse before I dared reveal
myself to Dolores Haze; but by six she was wide awake, and by six fifteen we
were technically lovers. I am going to tell you something very strange; it was
she who seduced me. (Nabokov, pp. 132)

The explicit display of paedophilia is shocking to both the reader and to Humbert

himself, so shocking that he places the instigation of sex onto Lolita, denying

responsibility for his actions. Humbert’s revelation regarding his fornication with

Lolita, especially the reference to Lolita’s ‘seductive’ provocations and her supposed

eagerness to make love, is a tool used by Humbert to instil a sense of innocence within

himself, and an attempt to pass the blame of perversion onto Lolita. His account of

events places Lolita as the seductress, and himself as the seduced, and he is arguably

shocked that the roles have been reversed, as he felt that he was the predator, and she

the prey. However, the reliability of the narrator is compromised, and Lolita’s role as

the perpetrator is a fabrication used to cover the forced sexual encounter between

Lolita and Humbert. In retrospect, Humbert admits to himself that his actions are

morally questionable:

This was an orphan. This was a lone child, an absolute waif, with whom a
heavy-limbed, foul-smelling adult had had strenuous intercourse three times
that very morning. Whether or not the realisation of a lifelong dream had
surpassed all expectation, it had, in a sense, overshot its mark – and plunged
into a nightmare. (Nabokov, pp. 140)
 46

Humbert realises that although he has finally satisfied his lustful urges towards Lolita,

perhaps momentarily, he has committed a moral and criminal offence by having sex

with a child. This both arouses and terrifies him, and although he is relishing the

scenario that he has created, he acknowledges that his obsession with ‘an absolute

waif’ has ruined him. He has achieved his ‘lifelong dream’, but has opened himself up

to being part of a ‘nightmare’, in that he cannot engage in a socially acceptable

relationship with Lolita, and has committed them both to secrecy and himself to guilt.

Lolita’s innocence has been truly lost, and her status as a ‘nymphet’ has been

compromised by the very man who placed it upon her.

The key critical debate surrounding Lolita is an argument of whether it is a

romanticised account of paedophilia, or instead an imaginative inhabiting of the

warped mind of a paedophile, and an account of child abuse at his hands. Both

arguments are critical in the reading and analysis of Lolita, and in the portrayal of

paedophilia as a subject matter. The language used by the narrator – both in narrative

and in internal poetry written by Humbert about Lolita – assists in luring the reader

into accepting Humbert’s paedophilia as a form of love, rather than abuse or crime. For

example, Humbert plays with the spacing of words when he is discussing his sexual

relationship with Lolita:

I am not a criminal sexual psychopath taking indecent liberties with a child.

The rapist was Charlie Holmes; I am the therapist – a matter of nice spacing in
the way of distinction. (Nabokov, pp. 150)

Humbert describes himself as a ‘therapist’, and the taker of Lolita’s virginity as ‘the

rapist’. The deliberate omission of the space between ‘the’ and ‘rapist’, and Humbert’s

acknowledgement of this typographic styling implies that he knows that he is, in some

respect, a rapist, but he is choosing to disregard this, instead placing the initial blame of

the loss of Lolita’s innocence on her first sexual partner, and placing himself as the

‘healer’. The use of language is paramount in the argument that language can
 47

reconstruct power, and turn a crime into a different kind of act. Humbert’s admission

of paedophilia is masked by his linguistic styling, and conveys as a remedy to Lolita’s

lost innocence.

To refer to the internal poetry written by Humbert about Lolita, and to further

initiate that language is used to romanticise the representation of paedophilia in Lolita,

Humbert publishes ‘Wanted’ in the novel, depicting his romantic love for Lolita:

Happy, happy is gnarled McFate

Touring the States with a child wife,
Plowing his Molly in every State
Among the protected wild life.

My Dolly, my folly! Her eyes were vair,

And never closed when I kissed her.
Know an old perfume called Soleil Vert?
Are you from Paris, mister? (Nabokov, pp. 256)

Humbert’s display of poetic competence shows his intelligence and maturity as a

learned man, and furthers the contrast between himself and Lolita. He refers to himself

as ‘gnarled McFate’ and to Lolita as ‘a child wife’, declaring his love through fictional

marriage in the poem. The romantic tones, use of language, and direct reference to

Lolita all insinuate his deep obsession with her, and with their paedophilic relationship.

However, Nabokov’s use of an elevated lexical register places Humbert on a pedestal of

high class and intelligence, depicting him as a romantic, not an abuser.

Even with the use of an elevated lexical register, Humbert’s compromised

reliability as a narrator detracts from the normalised portrayal of a paedophile. There

is a contradiction in Humbert’s account of events as the audience are only aware of

events through Humbert’s twisted perspective, and the truth of matters is ambiguous.

Nabokov has written an account of paedophilia and child abuse, painting the victim as

the perpetrator, and Humbert as a slave to his own perversion. Humbert attempts to

portray himself as a victim of his own lustful urges, and demonises his victim in order

to justify his actions. The demonization of Lolita, and her portrayal as a nymphet and
 48

temptress render Humbert as being unable to resist her, and conveys the relationship

between Humbert and Lolita as ambiguous, ergo the audience are unsure whether this

is a forbidden relationship, or an account of rape and child abuse. Humbert as a

character is a prime example of an unreliable narrator, as his negative and predatory

actions contradict the romantic persona he is trying to portray. The representation of

paedophilia in Lolita could be seen as positive from the narrator’s perspective, and to

an extent the reader is drawn in by Humbert’s narrative, and experiences a level of

sympathy towards Humbert’s plight. However, the unreliability of Humbert’s narrative

casts doubt on the validity of his opinions, and reveals that his actions are indeed of a

negative nature, and are clearly paedophilic and abusive. As a transgressive text, Lolita

is a display of male sexual deviance and the repercussions of acting upon paraphilic

desires.
 49

Conclusion

This dissertation has sought to explore the representation of sexual deviance in

transgressive fiction, as it relates to the male figure. In transgressive fiction, sex is used

as a way to break free of the confines of social or cultural repression, described as an

illicit means of escape. In exploring the paraphilias of homosexuality, fetishism,

paedophilia, masturbation, I have argued that with each differing facet of sexual

deviance comes a differing social acceptance of that deviance in literature.

Regarding homosexuality, the texts discussed were not written explicitly as

transgressive fictions, but they both harbour aspects of the transgressive fiction genre

that when deciphered, enable Maurice and A Single Man to be subjectively considered

as transgressive texts. The focus on homosexuality in a time when it was considered

socially and lawfully erroneous to engage in male homosexual activities is

transgressive. The attempt to normalise homosexual relationships in A Single Man and

Maurice, especially with the latter including a positive ending for the homosexual

protagonist, is deemed a transgression from the social norms of the times of writing.

Social and legal condemnations of homosexuality gave it status as a sexual deviance,

and a transgression from the societal norms prior to the decriminalisation of

homosexuality in Britain in 1963, and the introduction of the Consenting Adult Sex Bill

in California in 1975, which by proxy repealed previous laws against sodomy.

 50

In Chapter Two, using fetishism and BDSM as combinative topics, I outlined

how the relationship between sexual deviance and transgressive fiction is apparent in

the texts discussed, as both are explicitly defined as texts that push the boundaries of

social and cultural norms. The male protagonists are portrayed as sexual deviants who

seek to escape from the confines of their social surroundings. Georges Bataille is a

forerunner of transgressive fiction, and his employment of sexuality as a by-product of

deviance from the social limits instilled by the social period at the time of writing is

fitting to the transgressive fiction genre. The frank representation of sexually deviant

acts, and the images evoked from such representations, engage the audience with the

primal instincts of sexuality, and depict sexual deviance as a necessary occurrence. The

unnamed narrator is portrayed as a slave to his libido, viewing sexual relations with

Simone and Marcelle as a form of violation of the social constructs of banal sexuality.

Whereas Bataille explores sexual deviance as an instinctual and embryonic

concept, E. L. James portrays BDSM as an outlet, a means of escape from the

mundanities of life. The correlation between the high-powered occupation of Christian

Grey and his need for control in his sexual life is akin to the trope of breaking free from

the confines of culture and society as prescribed in transgressive fiction. James uses

BDSM to convey Christian’s tenuous relationship with his public and private realms,

and his perception of himself as the dominant. Arguably a stoic ideology, James implies

that Christian as the dominant uses fetishism and means outside of sexual deviance to

control every aspect of his life, and the life of his chosen submissive, and demonstrates

the transgression from the norms of his social surroundings.

Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is considered as transgressive fiction, as the subject-

matter of paedophilia alone is considered transgressive, and Nabokov’s controversial

narrative and sympathetic portrayal of the paedophilic narrator solidify its standing as

a transgressive text. The depiction of Humbert shows a man who is both trying to

escape his urges, and trying to embrace them and exercise his sexually deviant desires.
 51

The conflicting natures of Humbert are often displayed as a power struggle between

prohibition of a sexual deviance, and sexual liberty, often with Humbert’s urges

overpowering his seemingly earnest yet half-hearted attempts to curb his paedophilia.

Humbert attempts to convince the reader of his innocence, as a slave to the ‘nymphet’,

placing the blame on those he desires. Refusing to accept his deviance is a denial of his

sexual identity, and thus a transgression in itself, before exploring the nature of

paedophilia as a sexual deviance.

Lastly, the topic of masturbation is questionable as a sexual deviance, but it is

considered a form of transgression in literature. As an act, masturbation is seen as a

form of sexual release, and in terms of men, it can be seen as a ritualistic form of male

bonding, especially in adolescents with the onset of puberty and in gendered social

circles. It is used as a tool for humour and disgust, often paired with ‘gross-out’

tendencies. Palahniuk’s ‘Guts’ is such a depiction, and whilst it explores the sexual

freedom of boys, in terms of engaging in a sexual act of release and the objective of

pleasuring the self, it also discloses deviant methods of pleasuring oneself, and displays

the vulnerability of the male as a sexual being through transgressive means. ‘Guts’

takes an innocuous and natural act, and hyperbolises it, depicting it as an act that

cannot be of any beneficial value to the participant This is used in correlation with the

grotesque to commercialise masturbation as a thematic concept to be used alongside

horror and ‘gross-out’ comedy, depleting the validity of masturbation as a credible

sexual act. Masturbation itself is not deviant, but the discussion of masturbation in

literature – or indeed anywhere on a public platform – is transgressive, due to the

private and solitary nature of the act. Although masturbation is celebrated as a form of

sexual liberation, it is also considered a sexual deviance when expanded upon outside

of the private realms of one’s own sexual life.

To conclude, I have shown that literary portrayals of male sexual deviance in

transgressive fiction can massively change the perception of deviant acts. The authors
 52

can not only reflect the attitudes of their time towards these acts, but can also seek to

change them. With regards to the male sexual deviant in transgressive fiction, I have

discussed how this character archetype breaks social and sexual boundaries to escape

the confines of the social and cultural surroundings, to find a sense of freedom, whilst

retaining that with this liberty, he is also constrained by definitions of what is sexually

deviant.
 53

Appendix One

Cover art of Penguin Modern Classics Edition of Nabokov, V., Lolita (United Kingdom:

Penguin Classics, 2000)

Cover photograph by Virginia Woods-Jack

 54

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