Isherwood—A pioneer in queer literature

Learn about one of the most influential queer writers in contemporary literature

Christopher Isherwood is a British novelist whose novel entitled A Single Man deals with queerness. A homosexual himself, Isherwood expressed his own struggles through writing. Examples of such difficulty include more than just accepting his homosexuality. Much like his fictional protagonist, George, both men had to understand themselves while also using such knowledge to cope with existence as they search for a sense of meaning in the world. Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man examines how grief causes its protagonist, George, to have difficulty coping with daily life; such despair reveals how coping with loss ultimately leads to acceptance of one’s identity, as well as the blandness of an existentialist lifestyle, through personal growth and maturation.

Born on August 26, 1904, Christopher Isherwood was the son of Frank and Kathleen, all of whom lived in an estate known as Wyberslegh Hall in Cheshire, England. While growing up in this place, Christopher Isherwood began exploring his sexual identity at a very young age. Isherwood began experiencing homoerotic attractions to the male body. With such knowledge, the young Christopher Isherwood understood his sexuality even at a very young age.

One of the problems Isherwood had to face, however, was doing more than merely accepting his queer identity. He had to become more open about that characteristic to other people in his life, especially to members of his family. His mother, Kathleen, felt devastated by this fact. Even though Kathleen did not accept her son for who he is, Christopher Isherwood only began to impact the lives of others with his queerness.

In spite of such a rough childhood, Christopher Isherwood explored his sexual orientation by experiencing a homoerotic friendship with a man named Wystan Hugh Auden. As both men cared for each other deeply, they also dreamed of literary success in America. Thus, in 1939, Wystan Hugh Auden moved to Manhatten, while Christopher Isherwood made Hollywood his home. Their collaborative nature allowed both Isherwood and W.H. Auden to eventually impact the world with their contributions to literature.

As time passed, however, Isherwood felt very empty during a critical point in his life. In spite of this sense of feeling lost, Isherwood wrote screenplays while living in Hollywood. He then began to actually express such discontent towards life through his writing, which ultimately resulted in a classic piece of queer fiction.

During his career as a writer, Christopher Isherwood gained notoriety through his most famous piece—a novel entitled A Single Man. This novel details a single day in the life of a man named George. In his novel, Christopher Isherwood describes his protagonist, George, as someone who has to endure the pain of losing a man he loves. Although the plot details a single day in the life of George, he ultimately undertakes internal struggles and self-doubts. After one fateful day, he ultimately realizes that the past is in the past. It may have taken George an entire day to realize this fact about life, but at least he finally understood a truth that few people in the real world can neither accept nor comprehend.

George is aware that his lover, Jim, is dead, yet has difficulty with accepting this fact. As he goes about his day minding his own business, George feels haunted by memories about Jim, as well as regret about losing a man that he loved dearly. He continues to emotionally struggle with this until he accepts the fact that the past is just gone. Although such knowledge unsettles him, George then contemplates about the nature of the past, which ultimately results in his personal growth and maturation into a more learned individual who can accept such past events.

As he analyzes the causes of such turmoil and despair, George then finally realizes a fact about the nature of grief. He eventually learns on his own that it is not the past that causes such despair for him, but fear.  Even with such a profound understanding about the sheer and bleak realism about life, George struggles with such truth as he tries to understand the nature of the present moment. George’s thoughts also reveal that, in terms of time, all that he can control is the present moment. He then understands that he will not need to worry about the future because it will simply play itself out as time progresses. Even though he understands the nature of time and existence, George still continues to question this fact even though he knows that it is realistic.

In spite of such a conflict between letting go of the past, accepting the present, and striving towards a better tomorrow, George further understands his anger and self-denial by realizing that hatred has a source. George understands that there is a cause for his anger, but has difficulty with coping with all of these dark truths about the existential nature of life. Finally, he then finds resolution with all of these thoughts. Now that he has all of these powerful truths in his mind, he finally ends his agony by smiling.  Therefore, his confusion about the realities of life ultimately provides George the courage to endure those struggles, and to finally let go of the past.

Although A Single Man deals with queerness, it only does so to a very limited extent. It is true that it is a famous work of queer fiction, but this novel explores the realities that plague mankind’s existence rather than openly expressing the homoerotic aspects within this work of fiction. Thus, even though A Single Man deals with queerness, the novel itself explores much more fundamental struggles that all people must endure, no matter what the sexual orientation of those people may be. The novel is a piece of literature that explores fundamental themes within the human experience rather than having critics simply labeling it as a work of queer fiction.

As Isherwood grew old, he looked back upon his legacy and understood more about his sexuality. Although people actually do know that Isherwood is a homosexual, he does not necessarily label himself that particular way. Rather than being an openly gay writer, Isherwood considers himself a part of a minority instead of having other people label him as a queer. Such a powerful outlook on personal identity ultimately reveals how being different gives Christopher Isherwood a sense of pride. More importantly, it was not his sexual orientation that defined him, but the fact that he was a person who challenged the status quo even though he was different from the rest of society. Most importantly, he celebrated his uniqueness.

With such a mentality about his self-worth, Christopher Isherwood found love with a man named Don Bachardy. The romance between this man and Isherwood was full of passion because Bachardy was an artist that often tried to capture the beauty of Christopher Isherwood in his work. They enjoyed each other’s company until a tragedy struck. Isherwood’s death was a tragic misfortune for Bachardy because he awoke to find his male lover dead one morning.

Christopher Isherwood struggled throughout his life to make himself known as a queer writer. Experiencing young homoerotic love during his youth, Isherwood began expressing his pain and dissatisfaction towards life after originally moving to Hollywood to write screenplays. He ultimately did more than just write about his sorrows, however. He created a seminal classic of queer fiction that eventually allowed other writers to explore what it means to be different. Christopher Isherwood really was different from the majority simply because he wanted to be among the minority. Thus, even though his wish was to be different, he is still a unique writer whose works impact the lives of those that read his works, especially if those readers are homosexual or just searching for a sense purpose in the world.