Chapter 9 - Hemingway and Queer Studies

Summary

In “Queer Studies,” Debra A. Moddelmog examines the way the maturing field of queer studies has proven a good fit for studying Hemingway and his multifaceted, intersectional explorations of about sexuality, gender, sexual practices, and their intersections with race, class, ability, and nationality. Moddelmog demonstrates that radical changes in Hemingway scholarship around issues of gender and sexuality as well as the studies of his interest in sexology introduced a Hemingway that challenged the iconic masculine persona. Beginning in the 1990s, critics such as Mark Spilka, J. Gerald Kennedy, Carl P. Eby, and Moddelmog herself began examining Hemingway’s newly revealed fascination with androgyny and sexual experimentation. That interest in the new millenium has given way to a richer understanding of the relationship between identity and sexuality, with “queer” and “trans” coming to mean not deviation but exploration from heteronormative standards. Moddelmog argues in particular that sexologist Havelock Ellis provides a useful mirror for redefining Hemingway’s desires, both biographical and in his writing.