http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/47790879

Same sex desire in California, 1849-1900

This study is an attempt to make visible the queer legacy in California from 1849 to 1900, and in particular how discourses around the gold rush depict same sex desire. The history of same sex desire in nineteenth century California radiates outward from the gold rush: every significant writer, artist, journalist and photographer who contributed to the cultural life of the state came initially in search of gold. Recent works by historians, literary scholars and cultural critics have noted a homoerotic dimension to the gold rush. Susan Lee Johnson's new study is the first acknowledge and address the homoerotic implications to the gold rush, and both Jonathan Ned Katz and Blake Allmendinger have contributed useful works on nineteenth century queer sexuality. Building on these studies, I examine the common threads that bind the visual and textual narratives that emerged in California from 1849-1900. Certain motifs and tropes occur regularly, beginning in gold rush letters and journals, in journalistic accounts, in novels, paintings, photographs and daguerreotypes. Some of the tropes in nineteenth century Californian discourse include self-invention, isolation, domesticity, and the sexualized native youth. These recurring tropes have several implications that form the foundation for this study: namely, did men (and women) immigrate to California to act according to their homoerotic desires and to live in largely homosocial communities? Did nineteenth century California engender a particular brand of queer artistry? The first chapter surveys the discourses of the gold rush, and the evidence in letters, journals, and diaries is useful in constructing an intimate portrait of the lives of the miners. The next two chapters focus on homoeroticism in the work of four nineteenth century California writers: Bayard Taylor, Charles Warren Stoddard, Louise A.K.S. Clappe and Helen Hunt Jackson. The final chapter examines the visual culture of nineteenth century California in order to counter the largely heteronormative readings these images engender. This chapter surveys a range of visual mediums--drawings, photographs, daguerreotypes, paintings--and reads these homosocial images with attention to their implicit, and sometimes explicit, homoerotic charge.

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