Co-operative Comradeships Versus Same-Sex Partnerships: Historicizing Collaboration Among Homosexual Couples in the Sciences

Abstract

In this chapter I consider a range of methodological challenges that complicate historical analysis of same-sex partnerships in science and then adopt Joan Scott’s concept of “imbrications” of subjective experiences with political discourses to analyze the sexual-science discourse of Edward Carpenter’s homosocial, country ménage near Sheffield, Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Based on my analysis, I suggest Carpenter’s case necessitates an expansion of the category “collaborative couples” beyond a focus on cohabitating, married partners, and I introduce the contemporary term, “co-operative comradeship” as a more historically salient means by which to describe Carpenter’s collaborative industry.