Something that I found really interesting during this weeks discussion of Laurence Housman’s The House of Joy was how Laurence’s own sexuality influenced the illustrations even when the illustrations depicted heterosexual couples. Kyle brought up a really interesting point during Alicia’s presentation on “The Story of the Herons” about how the the Prince Heron’s longing to return to his old life as a bird could be read as a gay man longing to be freed from a heterosexual relationship. Historically, and even in present day, many gay men and women stay trapped “in the closet” and marry someone of the opposite sex in order to not have their sexuality revealed. I think it’s really interesting to analyze the illustration from this perspective, especially considering the context of Oscar Wilde’s “indecency” trial that is an important factor at this time.

Another interesting thing that came up in this week’s discussion is the role women played in Housman’s work. As a very outspoken activist for women’s rights at the time, it was interesting to see how Housman portrayed women in his illustrations, particularly in “The Moon-Flower” illustration where we see the woman depicted larger than the man in the picture, in the foreground, and in an active stance rather than the other way around. 

I really enjoyed getting to listen to everyone’s discussions about these beautiful images this week!