ALT: a poster that says every day is earth day with a picture of the earth

This contribution explores the novels Footsteps of Fate (Noodlot, published 1890) by Dutch author Louis Couperus and Monsieur Antinoüs et Madame Sapho (published 1899) by French writer Luis d’Herdy [a pseudonym for Louis Didier], together with the pseudonymously published German short story “Suicide” (“Freitod,” published 1924). In these texts, continental ideas of societal decadence meet a Norwegian landscape conceived as sublime and powerful. While Couperus constructs a fatalist plot in keeping with degeneration theory, d’Herdy treats derogatory conceptions of homosexuality in ludic ways. In the short story, the masculinist ideology of the interwar Männerbund is tied to an idea of the sublime and ultra-vital North, demonstrating how how ideas of the sublime North could undergird a celebration of male same-sex desire, albeit with misogynist and elitist aspects.

Current Issue