Mehl Penrose

The Spanish Enlightenment writer Gaspar de Nava Álvarez interrogated eighteenth-century notions of masculinities and sexualities in 'Poesías asiáticas' (Asian Poems 1833), a reworking of original Arabic and Persian verses. I argue that the homoeroticism expressed in 'Poesías asiáticas' forges an Enlightenment-inspired masculine identity of Muslim men that deconstructs stereotypical images of lascivious and violent Islamic predators. The deployment of positive imagery of desire between Muslim men redirects Spanish Enlightenment poetry away from French influences and invokes Islamicate discursive images as a sort of new Arcadia in the Spanish collective imaginary and as a source of poetic inspiration.

This book is the first monograph wholly devoted to the subject of non-normative masculine gender and male sexuality in Enlightenment Spain. It analyzes journalistic essays, poetry, and drama in order to show that Spanish authors employed satirical images of unconventional men to shape the national dialog on gender and sexuality. The first half of the book is devoted to studying the gendered and sexual problematic of the "petimetre," an effeminate, Francophile male stock character who figured a failed masculinity, a dubious sexuality, and an invasive French cultural presence in Spain. The study counters traditional scholarship on this figure, which has argued that the "petimetre" was a trope configured to assuage anxieties resulting only from gender-related issues, by positing that the character was also created to address concerns about sexuality. The second half of the book examines same-sex male desire, love, and erotica and argues that the "bujarrón," a man who had sexual relations with men, was normally portrayed in cultural discourse as a foreigner or clergyman as a tactical maneuver designed to heighten xenophobia and undermine Church power. The second part also re-evaluates the scholarly position on male relationships in pastoral poetry, maintaining that rather than depicting just friendships, some of the poetry evinced homoerotic desire and imitated Virgilian verse in style and theme. This study argues that it is within the Enlightenment rather than the post-Enlightenment period that modern day notions of masculine gender and sexuality were embedded into the fabric of Spanish society.

This book is the first monograph wholly devoted to the subject of non-normative masculine gender and male sexuality in Enlightenment Spain. It analyzes journalistic essays, poetry, and drama in order to show that Spanish authors employed satirical images of unconventional men to shape the national dialog on gender and sexuality. The first half of the book is devoted to studying the gendered and sexual problematic of the "petimetre," an effeminate, Francophile male stock character who figured a failed masculinity, a dubious sexuality, and an invasive French cultural presence in Spain. The study counters traditional scholarship on this figure, which has argued that the "petimetre" was a trope configured to assuage anxieties resulting only from gender-related issues, by positing that the character was also created to address concerns about sexuality. The second half of the book examines same-sex male desire, love, and erotica and argues that the "bujarrón," a man who had sexual relations with men, was normally portrayed in cultural discourse as a foreigner or clergyman as a tactical maneuver designed to heighten xenophobia and undermine Church power. The second part also re-evaluates the scholarly position on male relationships in pastoral poetry, maintaining that rather than depicting just friendships, some of the poetry evinced homoerotic desire and imitated Virgilian verse in style and theme. This study argues that it is within the Enlightenment rather than the post-Enlightenment period that modern day notions of masculine gender and sexuality were embedded into the fabric of Spanish society.

In late eighteenth-century Spanish discourse, moralists and satirists attempted to redress what they deemed a grave social issue: the loss of a masculine, virtuous visibility in men, especially in young, well-heeled males. In moralist essays, the petimetre became the quintessential trope for the idle, effeminate, aristocratic Spanish man. He was created as a literary figure to stand in marked contrast to the manly hombre de bien, who represented martial valor and heteronormative privacy. Juan Antonio Mercadal, author of El Duende Especulativo sobre la vida civil (1761), delved into the fray with, among other writings, his “Discurso Nueve.” In this essay, he names and describes a type of man whom he refers to as “hermaphrodita.” Like the petimetre, he is a queer male figure who transgresses the dimorphous gendered system. By employing the term “hermaphrodite,” Mercadal conjures up images of an intersex person who retained a monstrous, almost mythical reputation in the eighteenth century. This works to configure in the mind of the reading public a man whose sexuality is abhorrent in an era of hardening heteronormative sexual roles. Mercadal’s “hermaphrodita” has the look, the walk, and the talk of a woman but still seems to be of the male sex, according to Mercadal. In effect, the satirist is employing a coded word to invent a new reality: an intergendered male who challenges what it means to be a man or a woman. By utilizing a new term to identify and describe a male who is deemed problematic along gender and sexual lines, Mercadal delineates the narrowed parameters of what constitutes a “real” Spanish man. The unintended result of Mercadal’s essay is the creation of a new identity that brings together “ser” and “aparecer,” or reality and illusion. By creating the figure of the “hermaphrodita,” Mercadal engendered the very reality he wished to combat.