An investigation of the resources available for interpreting visual cultural production related to male homosexuality in Britain : 1940 to the present

Abstract

This thesis explores the changing theoretical and historical protocols for understanding the complex relationships between visual representation, masculinity and male sexual identity in Britain since World War 11. Through oblique encounters with the work of Francis Bacon, Cecil Beaton, Keith Vaughan and David Sockney, detailed readings of popular fiction, literature and literary theory, research in the archives of The Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (1955-7), analysis of British health and fitness magazines and a consideration of the spaces of male social and sexual encounter, historically based readings of written and visual representations of the male figure are formulated that circulate Two Figures 1953 by Francis Bacon. These readings challenge a number of established approaches, including those that use the protocols of psychoanalysis, post-structuralism and certain forms of social/sexual politics and theory.