The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary

The summary of the selected article appears at the bottom of the page. In order to get back to the contents of the issue this article belongs to you have to access the link from the title. In order to see all the articles of the archive which have as author/co-author one of the authors mentioned below, you have to access the link from the author's name.

 
       
         
    STUDIA PHILOLOGIA - Issue no. 1-2 / 2002  
         
  Article:   SILENCE VERSUS VISIBILITY: THE CASE OF RADCLYFFE HALL.

Authors:  ALINA PREDA.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  This study discusses the ambivalence of Radclyffe Hall’s work for lesbians and feminists, focusing on two of her novels, The Unlit Lamp and The Well of Loneliness. While the first novel offers some Freudian hints in order to account for the attraction between its main female characters, Joan and Elizabeth, without suggesting in any way that they are inverts, the latter explicitly states that Stephen Gordon, the novel’s heroine, suffers from a congenital problem. In The Well Hall abandons the feminist perspective and follows the path of heterosexual social constructs and stereotypes, in an attempt to obtain a more peaceful life for gay people, by showing that homosexuality is not a matter of choice but a congenital ’defect’. However, in spite of its flaws, Hall’s much contested novel broke the silence surrounding lesbianism and brought important issues to the attention of the public.  
         
     
         
         
      Back to previous page