At the moment, I am particularly interested in 19th century British nature poetry by queer poets. I am curious about how such poets, especially Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Michael Field, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, deal with the natural world in their poetic life, and how their experiences are mediated by their gender and class positions. While Alfred Lord Tennyson and Gerard Manley Hopkins worked alone and were men, Michael Field is the pseudonym of Katherine Harris Bradley and her niece/lover Edith Emma Cooper. All four poets engaged readily with the natural world, and all experienced love and connection outside what was considered strictly natural. I am curious about why such poets found such ready repose in the image of the countryside, and how they expressed non-reproductive desire through dominant discourses of the natural, a reproductive space. I am also interested in how the poets deal with conceptions of masculinity when encountering nature, a feminized space. How do queer male poets conceptualize masculinity, how does that compare to queer women operating under a shared male pseudonym? The methodological tools I think I will find helpful are Lee Edlemen’s “No Future” as well as José Esteban Muñoz's retort in "Cruising Utopia”.
In Memoriam, Part 39 By Alfred Lord Tennyson; Power in Silence By Michael Field; That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection By Gerard Manley Hopkins
by Rosemary Achauer -
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