AustLit

The essay traces the interconnections between aesthetic mode, sexual disclosure, and literary celebrity in White's work and career. 'From early on in his career, White appears to have been convinced of a close link between ... sexuality and literary artistry. White's autobiographical writings, his correspondence, and his fiction elaborate upon this idea, moving between notions of identity as performance and identity as essence. In so doing, his work indicates his uneasy relations to his homosexuality and his celebrity status, both of which he simultaneously embraced and disavowed' (2).