Masculinity and Queer Desire in Spanish Enlightenment Literature by Penrose MehlAllan

Abstract

Reviewed by: Masculinity and Queer Desire in Spanish Enlightenment Literature by Penrose MehlAllan Carlos López Penrose, MehlAllan, Masculinity and Queer Desire in Spanish Enlightenment Literature (New Hispanisms: Cultural and Literary Studies), Farnham, Ashgate, 2014; hardback; pp. 210; 2 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £60.00; ISBN 9781472422262. In this compelling monograph, Mehl Allan Penrose 'examines the construction of "queerness"' (p. 1), and the changing ideas of masculinity and sexuality in Spanish Enlightenment cultural discourse. Penrose focuses his study on three non-normative male figures: the petimetre (or afeminado), an effeminate Francophile; the bujarrón, the active male in same-sex sexual relations; and the Arcadian shepherd who expresses his desire for other males. He argues that these figures were characterised in a 'queer' manner to reinforce rigid ideas of gender. In doing so, however, they actually engendered non-normative men and helped to create 'an alternative version of "man"' (p. 2). The book is divided into two parts. The first examines the 'cultural and historical context of the afeminado … and the perceived crisis of masculinity in Spain' (p. 26). Chapter 1 analyses how language and concepts such as hermaphrodita and jembra vestía de hombre (women dressed as men) were used in Spanish periodicals to establish the petimetre as a gendered other. In Chapter 2, Penrose applies a camp reading to the comedic sainetes of Ramón de la Cruz, arguing that Cruz's petimetres, exaggerated in their behaviour and appearance, represent a 'proto-camp figuron' (p. 107). The second part explores homoerotic images in Spanish poetry and the messages they delivered, both homophobic and homophile. Chapter 3 analyses the negative and often violent depictions of same-sex sexual relations in the poetry of Félix María de Samaniego and the poem known as 'The Dandy of Seville'. While negative, these poems created a new discourse on male sexuality, and empowered men who engaged in same-sex sexual relations. In the fourth and final chapter, Penrose examines the classically inspired poems of Manuel María del Mármol and the figure of the Arcadian shepherd. Mármol's shepherds express romantic feelings for other men in a positive manner and are given agency through their own voice, in stark contrast to the petimetre and bujarrón. Penrose concludes that the works examined in his study reveal that 'the idea of queerness in gender and sexuality started long before the invention of the word "homosexual" around 1870' (p. 171). Moreover, Penrose calls for continued research into queerness and non-normative expressions of gender and sexuality to better understand how these ideas were constructed in the past and continue to be constructed today. [End Page 241] Carlos López The University of Notre Dame Australia Copyright © 2017 Carlos lópeZ