'My 'Chaste' Novel': Mikhail Kuzmin's Wings and the Problem of Queer Beauty

• In Event: Literature and/as Liberation: Studying Early Queer Literature from Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This paper frames the discussion of Mikhail Kuzmin's novel Wings in terms of the aesthetic possibilities of queer representation in early twentieth century Russia, leading Kuzmin to navigate between obscenity and abstraction. Special attention will be given to contemporary literary works that shaped Kuzmin's approach but remain understudied in the critical literature on the novel, namely Anatole France's Red Lily and Dmitry Merezhkovsky's Resurrected Gods.

Author

• Brian James Baer, Kent State U