The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

The Chevalier d'Eon and his worlds: gender, espionage and politics in the eighteenth century

The Chevalier d'Eon and his worlds: gender, espionage and politics in the eighteenth century
The Chevalier d'Eon and his worlds: gender, espionage and politics in the eighteenth century
Cross-dressing author, envoy, soldier and spy Charles d’Eon de Beaumont’s unusual career fascinated his contemporaries and continues to attract historians, novelists, playwrights, filmmakers, image makers, cultural theorists and those concerned with manifestations of the extraordinary. D’Eon’s significance as a historical figure was already being debated more than 45 years before his death.

Not surprisingly, such sensational material has attracted the attention of enthusiasts, scholars and literateurs to ‘the strange case of the chevalier d’Eon’. He has also attracted the attention of psychologists and sexologists, and for most of the last century his gender transformation has been viewed through a Freudian lens. His cross-dressing, it was usually assumed, must have a psychosexual explanation. Until the second half of the twentieth century the terms ‘Eonist’ and ‘Eonism’ were the standard English words for transvestites and transvestism respectively, but ‘Eonism’ was also, thanks to Havelock Ellis, widely regarded as a psychological condition or compulsion. However, in the mid-twentieth century, new ideas about gender-identity disorders led to d’Eon being redefined not as a transvestite, but a transsexual – a person who considers their sex to have been ‘misassigned’.
The essays in this collection contribute to d’Eon’s rehabilitation as a figure worthy of scholarly attention and display a variety of disciplinary approaches. Drawing on new research into d’Eon’s life, this volume offers original and nuanced readings of how a gender identity could come to be negotiated over time.
9780826422781
Continuum
Burrows, Simon
5be6e3f9-de96-461c-a438-a5a6bf48429d
Conlin, Jonathan
3ab58a7d-d74b-48d9-99db-1ba2f3aada40
Goulbourne, Russell
a9e10f40-6b31-4d46-b38b-7039225219b1
Mainz, Valerie
abfbc23e-5110-4684-aab5-d9184b43960f
Burrows, Simon
5be6e3f9-de96-461c-a438-a5a6bf48429d
Conlin, Jonathan
3ab58a7d-d74b-48d9-99db-1ba2f3aada40
Goulbourne, Russell
a9e10f40-6b31-4d46-b38b-7039225219b1
Mainz, Valerie
abfbc23e-5110-4684-aab5-d9184b43960f

Burrows, Simon, Conlin, Jonathan, Goulbourne, Russell and Mainz, Valerie (eds.) (2010) The Chevalier d'Eon and his worlds: gender, espionage and politics in the eighteenth century , London, GB. Continuum, 272pp.

Record type: Book

Abstract

Cross-dressing author, envoy, soldier and spy Charles d’Eon de Beaumont’s unusual career fascinated his contemporaries and continues to attract historians, novelists, playwrights, filmmakers, image makers, cultural theorists and those concerned with manifestations of the extraordinary. D’Eon’s significance as a historical figure was already being debated more than 45 years before his death.

Not surprisingly, such sensational material has attracted the attention of enthusiasts, scholars and literateurs to ‘the strange case of the chevalier d’Eon’. He has also attracted the attention of psychologists and sexologists, and for most of the last century his gender transformation has been viewed through a Freudian lens. His cross-dressing, it was usually assumed, must have a psychosexual explanation. Until the second half of the twentieth century the terms ‘Eonist’ and ‘Eonism’ were the standard English words for transvestites and transvestism respectively, but ‘Eonism’ was also, thanks to Havelock Ellis, widely regarded as a psychological condition or compulsion. However, in the mid-twentieth century, new ideas about gender-identity disorders led to d’Eon being redefined not as a transvestite, but a transsexual – a person who considers their sex to have been ‘misassigned’.
The essays in this collection contribute to d’Eon’s rehabilitation as a figure worthy of scholarly attention and display a variety of disciplinary approaches. Drawing on new research into d’Eon’s life, this volume offers original and nuanced readings of how a gender identity could come to be negotiated over time.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 26 February 2010

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 79882
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/79882
ISBN: 9780826422781
PURE UUID: 2aaaa7c8-834e-4219-ad04-974bb64a21c0
ORCID for Jonathan Conlin: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0394-4931

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 22 Mar 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:52

Export record

Contributors

Editor: Simon Burrows
Editor: Jonathan Conlin ORCID iD
Editor: Russell Goulbourne
Editor: Valerie Mainz

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×