The Veiling of Homoerotic Desire in Roland Barthes' S/Z

Carrie Watterson



(470) I am the one, monsieur, who gave Zambinella his voice. I paid for everything that scamp ever had, even his singing teacher. Well, he has so little gratitude for the service I rendered him that he has never consented to set foot in my house. * Evoking the boy instead of the woman or the castrato, that scamp reestablishes (if only fleetingly) a normal­if one can use the word­axis of the sexes (garbled throughout the story by the castrato's uncertain situation, sometimes the essence of femininity, sometimes the disclaimer of all sexuality) (SYM. Axis of the sexes). ** SYM. Before castration. (S/Z, 185)

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