The ‘impossible subject’: Tom Crewe’s Genealogy of Gay Culture in The New Life (2023)
Tom Crewe’s debut novel The New Life is a historical reference to a progressive Fellowship, a forerunner of the Fabian Society, committed to promoting sexual emancipation in the last decade of Victorian England, the context of Oscar Wilde’s trial in 1895. Epistemologically, ‘the New Life’ is also th...
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| Publicado no: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc, |
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| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Études britanniques contemporaines
2025
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| Acesso em linha: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_17072 |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_17072 https://doi.org/10.4000/158k7 urn:doi:10.4000/158k7 en https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/17072 2025-11-28T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/158k7 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The ‘impossible subject’: Tom Crewe’s Genealogy of Gay Culture in The New Life (2023) Études britanniques contemporaines Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2271-5444 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1168-4917 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc Letissier, Georges Tom Crewe John Addington Symonds et Henry Havelock Ellis le passé inaccessible pulsion anhistorique histoire de la sexualité historicisme queer nœuds du temps drag temporel Justin Torres sapience lascive Tom Crewe John Addington Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis unretrievable past unhistorical drive history of sexuality queer historicism time binds temporal drag Justin Torres prurient sapience Tom Crewe’s debut novel The New Life is a historical reference to a progressive Fellowship, a forerunner of the Fabian Society, committed to promoting sexual emancipation in the last decade of Victorian England, the context of Oscar Wilde’s trial in 1895. Epistemologically, ‘the New Life’ is also the liberty taken by a historian when he ventures into the realm of fiction, to reimagine the past from the vantage point of what was a utopian project in the first place. Indeed, Crewe emancipates himself from the strictures of solid facts and firm chronology. Crewe’s contribution to the ‘neo historical novel’ consists in taking up an authentic source, Sexual Inversion (1897), a medical textbook, co-authored by John Addington Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis, to (mostly) imagine the gay sub(counter)culture of the 1890s. By celebrating emancipatory movements (Uranians but also feminists and reformers of all stripes) Crewe suggests that there is more to history than what is actualised by facts recorded by historians. We read The New Life through the prism of ‘queer historicism’ before contrasting it with Justin Torres’s Blackouts (2023). The New Life, premier roman de Tom Crewe, est une référence historique à une Société progressiste qui a précédé les Fabiens et promouvait l’émancipation sexuelle dans la dernière décennie de l’Angleterre victorienne, au moment du procès d’Oscar Wilde en 1895. D’un point de vue épistémologique, « the New Life » est aussi la liberté prise par un historien quand il s’aventure dans le domaine de la fiction, pour réimaginer le passé à partir de la perspective de ce qui était avant tout un projet utopiste au départ. En effet, Crewe se libère des contraintes des faits historiques avérés et d’une chronologie incontournable. La contribution de Crewe au « renouveau du roman historique » réside dans le choix de reprendre un document authentique, Sexual Inversion (1897), un traité médical, rédigé par John Addington Symonds et Henry Havelock Ellis, pour réimaginer la sous-culture, contreculture gay des années 1890. En célébrant des mouvements d’émancipation (les Uranistes mais aussi les féministes et réformateurs de toutes obédiences) Crewe suggère qu’il y a plus de possibilités dans l’histoire que celle de raconter les faits qui ont été sanctionnés par les historiens. Nous lisons The New Life à travers le prisme du « Queer Historicism » avant de contraster le roman de Crewe avec Blackouts (2023) de Justin Torres. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
Tom Crewe John Addington Symonds et Henry Havelock Ellis le passé inaccessible pulsion anhistorique histoire de la sexualité historicisme queer nœuds du temps drag temporel Justin Torres sapience lascive Tom Crewe John Addington Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis unretrievable past unhistorical drive history of sexuality queer historicism time binds temporal drag Justin Torres prurient sapience |
| spellingShingle |
Tom Crewe John Addington Symonds et Henry Havelock Ellis le passé inaccessible pulsion anhistorique histoire de la sexualité historicisme queer nœuds du temps drag temporel Justin Torres sapience lascive Tom Crewe John Addington Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis unretrievable past unhistorical drive history of sexuality queer historicism time binds temporal drag Justin Torres prurient sapience Letissier, Georges The ‘impossible subject’: Tom Crewe’s Genealogy of Gay Culture in The New Life (2023) |
| description |
Tom Crewe’s debut novel The New Life is a historical reference to a progressive Fellowship, a forerunner of the Fabian Society, committed to promoting sexual emancipation in the last decade of Victorian England, the context of Oscar Wilde’s trial in 1895. Epistemologically, ‘the New Life’ is also the liberty taken by a historian when he ventures into the realm of fiction, to reimagine the past from the vantage point of what was a utopian project in the first place. Indeed, Crewe emancipates himself from the strictures of solid facts and firm chronology. Crewe’s contribution to the ‘neo historical novel’ consists in taking up an authentic source, Sexual Inversion (1897), a medical textbook, co-authored by John Addington Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis, to (mostly) imagine the gay sub(counter)culture of the 1890s. By celebrating emancipatory movements (Uranians but also feminists and reformers of all stripes) Crewe suggests that there is more to history than what is actualised by facts recorded by historians. We read The New Life through the prism of ‘queer historicism’ before contrasting it with Justin Torres’s Blackouts (2023). |
| author |
Letissier, Georges |
| author_facet |
Letissier, Georges |
| author_sort |
Letissier, Georges |
| title |
The ‘impossible subject’: Tom Crewe’s Genealogy of Gay Culture in The New Life (2023) |
| title_short |
The ‘impossible subject’: Tom Crewe’s Genealogy of Gay Culture in The New Life (2023) |
| title_full |
The ‘impossible subject’: Tom Crewe’s Genealogy of Gay Culture in The New Life (2023) |
| title_fullStr |
The ‘impossible subject’: Tom Crewe’s Genealogy of Gay Culture in The New Life (2023) |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The ‘impossible subject’: Tom Crewe’s Genealogy of Gay Culture in The New Life (2023) |
| title_sort |
‘impossible subject’: tom crewe’s genealogy of gay culture in the new life (2023) |
| publisher |
Études britanniques contemporaines |
| publishDate |
2025 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/158k7 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/17072 |
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1877291867090976768 |