Masculine Landscapes: Walt Whitman and the Homoerotic Text [Hardcover]

Byrne Fone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1992

Scrutinizing the weave and texture of Walt Whitman’s earliest poetry and fiction, the notebooks of 1855–56, the first edition (1855) of Leaves of Grass, and the Calamus poems, Byrne R. S. Fone demonstrates that from the beginning and throughout, Whitman’s homoerotic muse, his "Fierce Wrestler," dictated the shape, tone, and message of the poetry.

Fone shows how Whitman’s presumed homosexuality is reflected in the work. He identifies the definitive signs, symbols, metaphors, and structures unique to homosexual texts as he examines the ways in which the social, emotional, spiritual, aesthetic, and sexual facts of homosexuality shape and define such texts. Further, he places Whitman in the context of nineteenth-century literary/social homosexual life as well as in the context of homosexual fantasy as expressed in certain nineteenth-century texts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Byrne R. S. Fone is professor of English at the City University of New York. He is the author of Hidden Heritage: History and the Gay Imagination, numerous articles, and a novel American Lives.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (June 30, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809317613
• ISBN-13: 978-0809317615
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,928,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

BYRNE FONE
[e-mail]
La Millasserie
24150 Mauzac et Grand Castang

Byrne Fone is a recognized pioneer in the field of Gay Studies and written several books in the field including A Road to Stonewall: Homosexuality and Homophobia in British and American Literature (Scribners), and a study of Walt Whitman: Masculine Landscapes: Walt Whitman and the Homoerotic Text (S. Illinois University Press). He has edited the largest and most comprehensive anthology of gay literature, The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature (Columbia University Press) and in Homophobia: A History ( Holt and Picador) he examines the history of homophobia over a period covering almost two millennia.

He is the author of the Trojan Trilogy, set at the time of the War at Troy, including the novels War Stories, The Trojan Women, and Achilles: A Love Story, a gay romance. His most recent novel is American Revolution, a political crime novel about a gay American president.

Byrne Fone and his partner Alain Pioton live in France where they operate their bed and breakfast: Le Domaine de La Millasserie. www.bandbfrancedordogne.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Independent Review of Masculine Landscapes ( Posted by Author ), July 26, 2011

By 

Byrne - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masculine Landscapes: Walt Whitman and the Homoerotic Text (Hardcover)

Masculine Landscapes is, to date, the most comprehensive, compelling, and authoritative study of the homosexual text and literary contexts of Leaves of Grass. The strength of Fone's contribution lies in his excellent analysis of Whitman's "homosexual iconography," his application of close readings of the notebooks to explications of the poems (the best use of the notebooks in the history of Whitman scholarship), his fine readings of the early poetry and fiction, his illuminating treatment of the famous 1855 poems (especially 'Song of Myself'), and, above all his thesis that Whitman's mature style coincided with his "fully realized ability to create homoerotic fantasy"--a thesis that, to my satisfaction at least, solves the old critical debate about the origins of Leaves of Grass.

-M. Jimmie Killingsworth, author of Whitman's Poetry of the Body: Sexuality, Politics, and the Text.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masculine Landscapes: Walt Whitman and the Homoerotic Text, November 17, 2002

By 

Courtney Redman (Bayside, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masculine Landscapes: Walt Whitman and the Homoerotic Text (Hardcover)

AN amazing book that attempts to demystify contemporary society of Whitman's sexual orientation. Fone utilizes Derridadean Theory to present his notion that Whitman may have been using homoeroticism within his writing to convey the messgage that people cannot be put into catagories. Much like Derrida's notion that signs are separate from words, Whitman's text is separate from himself.

I definatly reccommend this book to those interested in Whitman's literature as well as all literary works.