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Journal article

The problem of sex in J. M. Barrie's fiction

Abstract:
A euphemistic, biographically supported reading of Tommy’s failure to “love” in Sentimental Tommy and Tommy and Grizel, has profoundly affected subsequent analyses of the novels and interpretations of Barrie’s thinking about both sexuality and art. This discussion begins by examining the difference that Barrie establishes between love and sexual passion in his early novels, before showing how he places this difference within a wider theory of human nature, in which sexual passion is both admitted as necessary and worried about as potentially destructive. The implications this has for Barrie’s consideration of artistic sexuality in the Tommy novels are then analysed, revealing the potential dangers of euphemistic readings which erroneously seek meaning from beyond rather than within the text.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
HUMS
Department:
English Faculty
Role:
Author


Publisher:
ELT Press
Journal:
English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 More from this journal
Volume:
60
Issue:
2
Pages:
185-209
Publication date:
2017-01-01
Acceptance date:
2016-04-10
EISSN:
1559-2715
ISSN:
0013-8339


Pubs id:
pubs:619311
UUID:
uuid:c5928375-0b90-4fb2-afe4-3358838c77d2
Local pid:
pubs:619311
Source identifiers:
619311
Deposit date:
2016-05-04
ARK identifier:

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