Marc-André Raffalovich's Uranism and Unisexuality

Marc-André Raffalovich's Uranism and Unisexuality, edited by Nancy Erber and published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015, serves as a scholarly recovery of a seminal 1896 text. Raffalovich, a poet and intellectual associated with the fin-de-siècle aesthetic movement, originally wrote his work as a direct, reactionary critique of the medicalized pathologization of homosexuality prevalent in late-Victorian sexology, specifically targeting the theories of Richard von Krafft-Ebing.

Nancy Erber’s 2015 edition provides a critical framework for understanding Raffalovich’s efforts to differentiate between 'uranism' as an innate, noble orientation and the 'unisexuality' he associated with more fleeting or perverse behaviors. Through her introduction and notes, Erber places the original manuscript within the broader context of queer history and literature, offering modern readers insight into how early gay intellectuals navigated and challenged the emerging clinical gaze of the late nineteenth century.