Camp Transvestism in Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994)
This essay focuses on the figure of the cross-dresser in Peter Ackroyd’s Neo-Victorian novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem, which uses both on and off-stage female-to-male and male-to-female cross-dressing as a backdrop for an investigation into a series of gruesome murders. The essay first explo...
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2019-06-01
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/7802 |
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| author | Justine GONNEAUD |
| author_facet | Justine GONNEAUD |
| author_sort | Justine GONNEAUD |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay focuses on the figure of the cross-dresser in Peter Ackroyd’s Neo-Victorian novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem, which uses both on and off-stage female-to-male and male-to-female cross-dressing as a backdrop for an investigation into a series of gruesome murders. The essay first explores the politics of cross-dressing, showing how the motif quite literally illustrates that gender is “performative”, in a Butlerian acceptation of the term, therefore allowing for an analysis of the constructedness of gender categories. Secondly, it examines the camp aesthetics of cross-dressing in the novel, a sensibility that challenges narrative categories and literary genres by reappropriating the codes of high and low culture. Finally, it demonstrates that the politics and aesthetics of cross-dressing are tied to a spiritual experience, reconnecting transvestism with its initial shamanic or religious dimension, thus turning the writing experience into a sacred performance of dispossession of identity. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-597be8f2e8e74884aaaf3fbd19ee2198 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj-art-597be8f2e8e74884aaaf3fbd19ee21982025-01-09T12:54:18ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182019-06-0116210.4000/erea.7802Camp Transvestism in Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994)Justine GONNEAUDThis essay focuses on the figure of the cross-dresser in Peter Ackroyd’s Neo-Victorian novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem, which uses both on and off-stage female-to-male and male-to-female cross-dressing as a backdrop for an investigation into a series of gruesome murders. The essay first explores the politics of cross-dressing, showing how the motif quite literally illustrates that gender is “performative”, in a Butlerian acceptation of the term, therefore allowing for an analysis of the constructedness of gender categories. Secondly, it examines the camp aesthetics of cross-dressing in the novel, a sensibility that challenges narrative categories and literary genres by reappropriating the codes of high and low culture. Finally, it demonstrates that the politics and aesthetics of cross-dressing are tied to a spiritual experience, reconnecting transvestism with its initial shamanic or religious dimension, thus turning the writing experience into a sacred performance of dispossession of identity.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/7802ethicscampgendercross-dressingPeter AckroydDan Leno |
| spellingShingle | Justine GONNEAUD Camp Transvestism in Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994) E-REA ethics camp gender cross-dressing Peter Ackroyd Dan Leno |
| title | Camp Transvestism in Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994) |
| title_full | Camp Transvestism in Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994) |
| title_fullStr | Camp Transvestism in Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Camp Transvestism in Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994) |
| title_short | Camp Transvestism in Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994) |
| title_sort | camp transvestism in ackroyd s dan leno and the limehouse golem 1994 |
| topic | ethics camp gender cross-dressing Peter Ackroyd Dan Leno |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/7802 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT justinegonneaud camptransvestisminackroydsdanlenoandthelimehousegolem1994 |