From: Laura Arnold

Subject: Between Men--Homosocial Desire

To: Laura Arnold, Kathryn Babson, jbellerm@reed (James Bellermann), Tom Belote, Kristina Marie Brinton-James, chandman@reed (Courtney Handman), ahendrix@reed.edu (Anna Oluffa Hendrix), Adam Holdorf, Michael Kunichika, alevinso@reed.edu (Amanda Levinson), blogan@reed.edu (Brooke Melissa Logan), Jonathan Naito, Kyle Napoli, Jonathan Edward Roche, Vanessa Elizabeth Smith, dstalder@reed.edu (David Aaron Stalder), tuba@reed.edu (Tracy Christine Uba), Jenny Wapner, ewong@reed.edu (Elisa Julia Wong), awhite@reed.edu, Bridget Cross, Vicente R. Viray, Daniel Owen Brigden, Caitlin Baggott

Hello All--

At the end of class I alluded to Eve Sedgwick's notion of homosocial desire and love triangles, and it occurred to me later that perhaps everyone might not be familiar with her argument (but that it would be useful for our final class discussion).

In a nutshell, Sedgwick argues that "in an erotic triangle, through their competition for, their 'traffic in,' a shared female object of desire, two male rivals bond 'homosocially,' establishing and ensuring 'the structures for maintaining and transmitting patriarchal power."

Here Sedwick is drawing on and adapting Rene Girard's notion of erotic traingles (see the book "Deceit, Desire, and the Novel"). She is interested in Girard's argument that in any erotic rivalry, the bond that links the two rivals is as intense and potent as the bond that links either of the rivals to the beloved: that the bonds of 'rivalry' and love,' differently as they are experienced, are equally powerful and in many senses equivalent" (Sedgwick 21).

Girard notes that most triangles involve two males who are rivals for a female, but you might want to consider who are rivals in the Blithedale Romance. (And how many triangles overlap thereby perhaps blurring further the line between "beloved" and "rival.")

In case any one has a further interest in this, I will place Sedgwick's book on reserve (call # and details below). The chapters that make the most sense to read are (with #1 as the most useful):

1. Chapter 1: Gender Asymmetry and Erotic Triangles

2. Introduction

3. Chapter 5: Toward the Gothic: Terrorism and Homosexual Panic

Have fun!

Laura

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Record 2 of 2

AUTHOR Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky.

TITLE Between men : English literature and male homosocial desire / Eve

Kosofsky Sedgwick.

PUBLICATION New York : Columbia University Press, 1985.

DESCRIPTION x, 244 p. ; 24 cm.

SERIES Gender and culture.

NOTES Includes index.

Bibliography: p. [229]-239.

SUBJECTS English literature -- History and criticism.

Men in literature.

Sex in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Masculinity (Psychology) in literature.

Feminism and literature.

ISBN 0231058608.

LOCATION CALL # STATUS

1 > Stacks PR409.M38 S4 1985