The Triumph of Pan: hermaphroditism and sexual inversion in Victor Benjamin Neuburg's poetry

Název: The Triumph of Pan: hermaphroditism and sexual inversion in Victor Benjamin Neuburg's poetry
Zdrojový dokument: Brno studies in English. 2015, roč. 41, č. 2, s. [141]-157
Rozsah
[141]-157
  • ISSN
    0524-6881 (print)
    1805-0867 (online)
Type: Článek
Jazyk
Licence: Neurčená licence
 

Upozornění: Tyto citace jsou generovány automaticky. Nemusí být zcela správně podle citačních pravidel.

Abstrakt(y)
The Greco-Roman god Pan was particularly significant for late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century literature, especially that produced by the Decadent movement in England and abroad. This is not surprising, given the features that Pan shares with the Decadent movement, features that proved oppositional to the moral and social norms that developed during the Christian period. Pan also had special significance for the occult and homoerotic practices that dominated the relationship between the famous magician, occult writer, Decadent poet, and general contrarian Edward Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) and his apprentice in the art of sexual magic, Victor Benjamin Neuburg (1883–1940), who was himself a Decadent poet, one whose memorable collection of poems is entitled The Triumph of Pan (1910). The present paper focuses on the motifs of hermaphroditism and sexual inversion that dominate Neuburg's title-poem "The Triumph of Pan," motifs that appear in two important theories of the period that influenced Neuburg. The first is Crowley's prediction of the age that will overcome the Judeo-Christian period, an age represented by the androgynous Egyptian god Horus, and the second is the concept of the intermediate sex, denoting individuals who possessed both male and female characteristics, advanced by Edward Carpenter (1844–1929), a sex reformer and writer on homosexuality. In both Crowley's and Carpenter's writing reforming attitudes to sex is connected with opposition to organised religion, the Judeo-Christian in particular.
Reference
[1] Asimov, Isaac (1981) Asimov's Guide to the Bible. New York: Wings Books.

[2] Carpenter, Edward (1912) The Intermediate Sex. New York: Kennerley.

[3] Carpenter, Edward (1896) Towards Democracy. Manchester: Labour Press.

[4] Churton, Tobias (2012) Aleister Crowley: The Biography. London: Watkins Publishing.

[5] Davis, Philip (2008) Why Victorian Literature Still Matters. Malden MA and Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.

[6] Fuller, Jean Overton (1990) The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg. Oxford: Mandrake.

[7] Kaye, Richard A. (2007) "Sexual Identity at the Fin de Siècle." In: Marshall, Gail (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle. New York: Cambridge University Press, 53–72.

[8] Kerényi, Karl (1974) The Gods of the Greeks. London: Thames and Hudson.

[9] Neuburg, Victor Benjamin (2009) The Triumph of Pan. Austin: Monkey Press.

[10] Owen, Alex (2004) The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

[11] Owen, Alex (1997) "The Sorcerer and His Apprentice: Aleister Crowley and the Magical Exploration of Edwardian Subjectivity." Journal of British Studies 36 (1): 99–133. | DOI 10.1086/386129

[12] Rowbotham, Sheila (2009) Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love. London and New York: Verso.

[13] Showalter, Elaine (2010) Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle. London: Virago.

[14] Urban, Hugh B. (2004) "The Beast with Two Backs: Aleister Crowley, Sex Magic and the Exhaustion of Modernity." Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 7 (3): 7–25. | DOI 10.1525/nr.2004.7.3.7

[15] Weir, David (1995) Decadence and the Making of Modernism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.