Double Agents

Espionage, Literature, and Liminal Citizens

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Gay & Lesbian, Theory, Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
Cover of the book Double Agents by Erin Carlston, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Erin Carlston ISBN: 9780231510097
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: April 16, 2013
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Erin Carlston
ISBN: 9780231510097
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: April 16, 2013
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Why were white bourgeois gay male writers so interested in spies, espionage, and treason in the twentieth century? Erin G. Carlston believes such figures and themes were critical to exploring citizenship and its limits, requirements, and possibilities in the modern Western state. Through close readings of Marcel Proust's novels, W. H. Auden's poetry, and Tony Kushner's play Angels in America, which all reference real-life espionaage cases involving Jews, homosexuals, or Communists, Carlston connects gay men's fascination with spying to larger debates about the making and contestation of social identity.

Carlston argues that in the modern West, a distinctive position has been assigned to those perceived to be marginal to the nation because of non-visible religious, political, or sexual differences. Because these "invisible Others" existed somewhere between the wholly alien and the fully normative, they evoked acute anxieties about the security and cohesion of the nation-state. Incorporating readings of nonliterary cultural artifacts, such as trial transcripts, into her analysis, Carlston pinpoints moments in which national self-conceptions in France, England, and the United States grew unstable. Concentrating specifically on the Dreyfus affair in France, the defections of Communist spies in the U.K., and the Rosenberg case in the United States, Carlston directly links twentieth-century tensions around citizenship to the social and political concerns of three generations of influential writers.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Why were white bourgeois gay male writers so interested in spies, espionage, and treason in the twentieth century? Erin G. Carlston believes such figures and themes were critical to exploring citizenship and its limits, requirements, and possibilities in the modern Western state. Through close readings of Marcel Proust's novels, W. H. Auden's poetry, and Tony Kushner's play Angels in America, which all reference real-life espionaage cases involving Jews, homosexuals, or Communists, Carlston connects gay men's fascination with spying to larger debates about the making and contestation of social identity.

Carlston argues that in the modern West, a distinctive position has been assigned to those perceived to be marginal to the nation because of non-visible religious, political, or sexual differences. Because these "invisible Others" existed somewhere between the wholly alien and the fully normative, they evoked acute anxieties about the security and cohesion of the nation-state. Incorporating readings of nonliterary cultural artifacts, such as trial transcripts, into her analysis, Carlston pinpoints moments in which national self-conceptions in France, England, and the United States grew unstable. Concentrating specifically on the Dreyfus affair in France, the defections of Communist spies in the U.K., and the Rosenberg case in the United States, Carlston directly links twentieth-century tensions around citizenship to the social and political concerns of three generations of influential writers.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Spells, Images, and Mandalas by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Metapatterns by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book The Wise Advocate by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Crowds and Democracy by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Getting Biodiversity Projects to Work by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Uneven Moments by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Scotch Verdict by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Eric Walrond by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Transnational Social Work Practice by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Liquid Metal by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Juggling Identities by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Coming to Our Senses by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book Readings of the Vessantara Jātaka by Erin Carlston
Cover of the book The Hillary Doctrine by Erin Carlston
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy