THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE HETEROPATRIARCHAL REALMS OF HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY: A QUEER HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF ALAN HOLLINGHURST’S THE SPARSHOLT AFFAIR
Makaleler > Tam Makale · 2025
Yazarlar: Yasemin BAYSAL, Aylin ATİLLA MAT
Bingöl Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, Uluslararası, 2025, ss 329-340
Özet
In the last decades, a renewed scrutiny and interest in the outsiders’ histories and identities attract attention in the literary and academic milieu, especially contemporary historical fiction. Within this frame, Alan Hollinghurst has been a notable figure for the configuration and depiction of homosexuality for not only historicization but also fictionalization. He has also been a prolific historical novelist from 1988 to explore multiple sexualities by uncovering their marginal status through various historical periods as opposed to the heteropatriarchal realms of history and historiography. In The Sparsholt Affair (2018), Hollinghurst presents an alternative flow of history from the period of the Second World War to the present day from the perspective of sexual minorities. This study aims to shed light on the transformation of the attitudes to homosexuality and its evolution through the various historical events and decades via the descriptions of diverse queer identities. Furthermore, it focuses on the interrogation of the representations of marginal histories and identities by exploring the rediscoveries of underrepresented voices in a harmony with the indispensable desire to retrieve an imaginary past and visible identities.