Sexology, Homosexual History, and Walt Whitman: The 'Uranian' Identity in Imre: A Memorandum

Historical surveys of the homosexual novel in the English language often take Imre: A Memorandum (1906) by Edward Prime-Stevenson as a starting point since this work of fiction is one of the first by a gay writer to deal openly with love between men and to end happily for the lovers; yet despite this attention an in-depth scholarly treatment of the themes of this novel has been lacking. This essay seeks to address this dearth by considering the role played by late nineteenth-century sexology, its concepts, its naming systems, and its mode of self-narration, and by giving special notice to the ways in which the text exceeds the boundaries of this continent of knowledge. Fin-de-siècle sexual science, especially liberationist third- or intermediate-sex sexology, triggers awareness which is essential to the central characters' subjectivities. But, as a means for constructing affirmative identities and mapping out relations between men, sexology proves to be insufficient. They turn to history and the arts, fashioning a cultural legacy of homosexuality, not in the mode of apologetics, but in order to self confidently historicise love between men, argue its cultural legitimacy, and thus the authenticity of this love in the modern era. This essay does not attempt to make the claim that the cultural-historical discourses are more important than the scientific, or vice versa, rather both are central to the characters' development and their 'coming out'.