“The Tomb of His Manhood”: Manliness and Homoerotica in D. H. Lawrence’s “England, My England” and “The Blind Man”

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Published: Jan 1, 2015

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Morakot Pan-iam

Abstract

Issues of manliness and homoeroticism, among others, are explored in D. H. Lawrence’s 1922 collection of short stories, England, My England. Two stories from the collection, “England, My England” and “The Blind Man” extensively delineate a cultural experience of male sexuality at the time of unthinkable destruction caused by World War I. While “England, My England” emphasises a moment of castration as the contextual interrogation of the age-old notion of manhood and masculinity at the outbreak of the Great War, “The Blind Man” explores masculine eroticism as a symbolic gesture of the individual struggle to reestablish companionship and alliance with other fellow beings. Broadly speaking, Lawrence in these two short stories reassesses the concept of castration and homoeroticism as a form of cultural phenomenon inherent in the traumatic experience of loss and the re-forming of the human bond which has previously been broken by the harrowing brutality of the Great War.

Article Details

Issue
No. 1 (2015): Thoughts 2015
Section
Articles

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Author Biography

Morakot Pan-iam

Morakot Pan-iam received his B.A. (first-class honors) in English from Silpakorn University and an M.A. in English from Chulalongkorn University. He is currently studying for his second M.A. at the University of Oregon, USA.  His research interests include gender and sexuality studies, popular fiction, and the twentieth-century English novels.

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