Alison Hennegan
Encyclopedia
Alison Hennegan is a lecturer at the University of Cambridge
and a Fellow of Trinity Hall
. She is also a prominent campaigner for gay and lesbian rights in the UK and a journalist.
Hennegan's academic work focuses on lesbian
and gay
themes in English literature
, particularly in British Modernism
. She began writing her PhD thesis, “Literature and the Homosexual Cult, 1890–1920” in Cambridge in 1970, but her heavy involvement in gay activism forced her to put her research on hold. She returned to the academy in the 1980s and has published articles on the lesbian
reader, Oscar Wilde
and the Symbolist
and decadent movement
s of the late nineetenth and early twentieth centuries. Other academic publications include scholarly introductions to the Virago Modern Classics editions of Adam’s Breed and The Well of Loneliness
by Radclyffe Hall
.
Her work in literary journalism has included a period as Literary Editor of the London fortnightly magazine Gay News
(1977–83), and regular articles in the weekly New Statesman
(1984–88). She has also been a prominent gay rights activist in the UK: she served as a Vice-Chair of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
(1975–77) and National Organizer for the gay counselling organization FRIEND.
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
and a Fellow of Trinity Hall
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
. She is also a prominent campaigner for gay and lesbian rights in the UK and a journalist.
Hennegan's academic work focuses on lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
themes in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
, particularly in British Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
. She began writing her PhD thesis, “Literature and the Homosexual Cult, 1890–1920” in Cambridge in 1970, but her heavy involvement in gay activism forced her to put her research on hold. She returned to the academy in the 1980s and has published articles on the lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
reader, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
and the Symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
and decadent movement
Decadent movement
The Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States.-Overview:...
s of the late nineetenth and early twentieth centuries. Other academic publications include scholarly introductions to the Virago Modern Classics editions of Adam’s Breed and The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 lesbian novel by the British author Radclyffe Hall. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" is apparent from an early age...
by Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...
.
Her work in literary journalism has included a period as Literary Editor of the London fortnightly magazine Gay News
Gay News
Gay News was a pioneering fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality...
(1977–83), and regular articles in the weekly New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
(1984–88). She has also been a prominent gay rights activist in the UK: she served as a Vice-Chair of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
Campaign for Homosexual Equality
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality is one of the oldest gay rights organisations in the United Kingdom. It is a membership organisation which aims to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales...
(1975–77) and National Organizer for the gay counselling organization FRIEND.
Publications
- 'Introduction' to Radclyffe Hall's Well of Loneliness. (Harmondsworth: Virago, 1982).
- 'Introduction' to Radclyffe Hall's Adam's Breed. (Harmondsworth: Virago, 1986).
- 'On Becoming a Lesbian Reader.' in Sweet Dreams: Sexuality, Gender and Popular Fiction. by S. Radstone. (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998) pp. 165–190.
- ‘Personalities and Principles: Aspects of Literature and Life in 'fin-de-siecle' England’. In Fin de siecle and Its Legacy. by M. Teich and R. Porter. (Cambridge: CUP, 1990) pp. 190–215.
- The Lesbian Pillow Book (ed.) (London: Fourth Estate, 2000)
- "Hea[r]th and Home: Wilde Domestic Space." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 27, no.3 (2002)
- "Suffering into Wisdom: The Tragedy of Wilde". in Tragedy in Transition, ed. Sarah Annes Brown and Catherine Silverstone, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)
- "Victorian Girlhood: Eroticizing the Maternal, Maternalizing the Erotic: Same-Sex Relations between Girls, c. 1880-1920". in Children and Sexuality: From the Greeks to the Great War, ed. George Rousseau (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
External links
- Trinity Hall Page on Alison Hennegan
- 'Alison Hennegan's Top 10 Lesbian Books', The Guardian
- Trinity Hall names Hennegan as Fellow Commoner
- Brief biography of Hennegan at the Knitting Circle, a lesbian and gay resource website.
- Hennegan, A. (2002). "Hea(r)th and Home: Wilde Domestic Space." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 27, no.3. (JSTOR Access Required)
- Cambridge & Diversity: "Alison Hennegan: speaking out"