The Sex Lives of Spinsters
Author: Shollenberger, Jess
Source: South Atlantic Review, Volume: 87, Issue: 3, September 2022
Type of Publication: Article in a Periodical
Description: In this essay, the author turns backward to the figure of the uncompanioned woman, widow, or spinster in the writing of Sarah Orne Jewett, whose work has been a crucial foothold for recovering queer ancestors in the American nineteenth century. Jewett's spinsters, whose "mateless" lives are without sex but not without sustaining attachments, are both queer outsiders to social life and ordinary women. Jewett's spinsters and their intimate lives can help us to reframe and better approach the current moment of anxiety about the shifting relevancies of sex to queer identities, queer politics, and queer theory.
Jess Shollenberger is a visiting assistant professor of Literatures in English.