Chapter 2 Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy A Queer, Christian-Anarchist Writer

• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2023
• Subjects: Gender studies, gender groups; History of other lands; Literature: history & criticism; Psychoanalytical theory (Freudian psychology); Psychology; Social & political philosophy; ethics, gender, LGBTQ+, political history, queer studies, Russian history, sexology, theology
• Online Access: Open Access: DOAB: description of the publication; Open Access: DOAB, download the publication
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (26 p.)
• ISBN: 9781003328964-2; 9781032342559; 9781032358505
• Access: Open Access

This chapter, the book's introduction and summary, examines Tolstoy's life and art using psychobiographical, historical, and sexological prisms. The centrality of erotic non-conformism is the artist's emotional landscape and anarchist vision is emphasized. The numerous precedents in Russian history and society for LGBT life, from medieval legends to the sex-lives of despots and artists alike, are reviewed. An in-depth exploration of Tolstoy's erotic and attachment history, taken together with the number of same-sex relationships portrayed in his art, uncovers an underappreciated erotic dissidence.