Queer Circles: Spiritualism and Role-Playing in Sarah Waters’s Affinity
Keywords:
Sarah Waters, Affinity, spiritualism, gender identity, role-playingAbstract
This paper traces the connection between the rise of the Spiritualist Movement and feminism in the more general context of the ghosting of female identity and sexuality in Sarah Waters’s (b. 1966) lesbian romance Affinity (1999). Spiritualism is presented as a space open for transgression, where women can express their fears, desires and will for power. The role of the medium and the relationship with audience is analysed with regard to the shifting and transgression of Victorian standards of masculinity and femininity.
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