'Hij zou onder diens ogen een vent zijn': Mannelijke homosociale verlangens in de romans van Menno ter Braak

Abstract

Menno ter Braak is one of the most prominent writers of Dutch high ­modernism. In his two novels, Hampton Court and Dr. Dumay verliest…, the double bind of homosocial desire is fully operative. Building on the critical work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, this paper questions the role of the ‘­epistemology of the closet’ in Ter Braaks literary oeuvre, which is pepper­ed with scenes of closeted homosexual desire. Moreover, and in addition to Sedgwick, I pay special attention to the representation of emancipated women in Ter Braaks novels. As I aim to show, the male characters seem to have accepted (or even internalised) feminist notions. Yet, the relative closeness to, and sometimes even identification with, emancipated women, reinforces the conservative reflexes build within male homosocial bonds. So in the end, the conservative fear on which the homosocial bond feeds, trumps the desire for change and a loosening up of the erotic spectrum.