SEX AND GENDER CODES AT THE FIN DE SIÈCLE

Sex and Gender Codes at the Fin De Siècle

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Sex and Gender Codes at the Fin De Siècle

Introduction

The Fin de siècle was the era of endings and beginnings. The conflict between the new and the old made the turn of century a transitional and erratic epoch. It is the time when the cultural politics and authorities of the British Empire were facing two different ages; the Victorian age and the Modern age; an age which was full of anxiety and stimulating sense of possibility. Concerning the sexual identities, gender politics or the concept of subjectiveness of the age itself, the fin de siècle resituated different textual constructions and challenged the residues of the previous ages (Ledger and Luckhurst 2000).

However, the fin de siècle according to George Gissing was the time of sexual anarchy, when the laws that controlled sexual identity and conduct lost their authorities (Showlter 1992, p.3). Men in that period were acting like women and women became like men. Moreover, gender and nation were in doubt in the fin de siècle. At that period also, ''feminism'' and "homosexuality'' came to use at the first time, as the New Women and men explained the new meanings of femininity and maleness (Showlter 1992, p.3).

The fin de siècle was also a time of sexual decadence. However, the emergence of sexual scandals as a consequence of this decadence arose at the level of people awareness about the emergence of absurd sexual practices and engendered ferocious reactions embodied in social campaign asking for renewing the sense of morality, lawmaking and censoring. There was also a call for reinforcing the importance and significance of the family and highlighting its role as a bulwark against such decadence. With Oscar Wild's trial in the 1880s, the homosexual identity emerged and reached the attention of the public. After Wild's trial, many Englishmen considered the homosexual scandals as a clear mark of the moral corruption that had ruined Greece and Rome (Showlter 1992, pp.3-4).

The history of fin de siècle literature cannot be understood away from the history of sexuality (Armstrong 1987, p.9). The history of sexuality, moreover, is written between the lines of the literature of the fin de siècle and the impacts of its attributes are constructed in the pages of its fictions. The characters of the turn-of-the-century are regarded as dominant figures of the English cultural mythology. From the time of their creation, they have achieved widespread prevalence in different cultures. Many of the characters are well-known whether the book in which they first appeared have been read or not. Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes, for example, are undead fabled creations whose legend have been rewritten many times and have affected the literature of our own time (Showlter 1992, p.15). However, this paper focuses on sex and gender in the late nineteenth century with examples from its fiction.

Sexual Anarchy and the Appearance of the Odd Woman and the New Woman

The sexual anarchy ...