Unmaking Sex
The Gender Outlaws of Nineteenth-Century France

A landmark study in the history of sexuality which redefines thinking about sex and gender in nineteenth-century France and beyond.

Anne E. Linton (Author)

9781316511824, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 March 2022

250 pages
23.5 x 16 x 1.9 cm, 0.55 kg

'The archival research Linton has undertaken is massive, bringing to light over 200 newly uncovered case studies of gender ambiguous people from 1800 to 1920. She also analyzes how long-forgotten popular fiction influenced several well-known texts, allowing Linton to propose fresh readings of famous authors like Balzac, Gautier, and Zola.' Céline Brossillon, The French Review

During the nineteenth century, words like 'intersex' and 'trans' had not yet been invented to describe individuals whose bodies, or senses of self, conflicted with binary sex. But that does not mean that such people did not exist. In nineteenth-century France, case studies filled medical journals, high-profile trials captured headlines, and doctors staked their reputations on sex determinations only to have them later reversed by colleagues. While medical experts fought over what separated a man from a woman, novelists began to explore debates about binary sex and describe the experiences of gender-ambiguous characters. Anne Linton discusses over 200 newly-uncovered case studies while offering fresh readings of literature by several famous writers of the period, as well as long-overlooked popular fiction. This landmark contribution to the history of sexuality is the first book to examine intersex in both medicine and literature, sensitively relating historical 'hermaphrodism' to contemporary intersex activism and scholarship.

Introduction: Gender revolution before intersex or transgender
Part I. A Cultural History of 'Hermaphrodism' from the Archives: 1. Prescribed fictions: stories of 'hermaphrodism' vs. true sex
2. Outlaws from birth: 'doubtful sex' and the civil code
Part II. Contextualizing High and Low Literary Narratives: 3. Is she or isn't he? Plotting ambiguous gender
4. Inheriting 'hermaphrodism': how degeneration theory changed literature and medicine
Epilogue: The nineteenth-century roots of contemporary resistance to true sex.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]