ABSTRACT
Colonialism and Homosexuality is a thorough investigation of the connections of homosexuality and imperialism from the late 1800s - the era of 'new imperialism' - until the era of decolonization. Robert Aldrich reconstructs the context of a number of liaisons, including those of famous men such as Cecil Rhodes, E.M. Forster or André Gide, and the historical situations which produced both the Europeans and their non-Western lovers.
Colonial lands, which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century included most of Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Caribbean, provided a haven for many Europeans whose sexual inclinations did not fit neatly into the constraints of European society.
Each of the case-studies is a micro-history of a particular colonial situation, a sexual encounter, and its wider implications for cultural and political life. Students both of colonial history, and of gender and queer studies, will find this an informative read.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |192 pages
Part I Colonials and homosexuality
chapter |33 pages
1 The sex life of explorers
chapter |27 pages
2 Captains of empire
chapter |23 pages
3 The company of men
chapter |42 pages
4 Writers' lives and letters
chapter |37 pages
5 Artists and homoerotic ‘Orientalism'
chapter |28 pages
6 Scandals and tragedies
part |151 pages
Part II Sites of colonial homosexuality
chapter |26 pages
9 The British (and others) in South Asia
chapter |27 pages
10 Forster, Masood, Mohammed and the maharajah
chapter |35 pages
11 The French in North Africa
part |32 pages
The end of empire