A dung beetle in distress: Hans Christian Andersen meets Karl Maria Kertbeny, Geneva, 1860: some notes on the archaeology of homosexuality and the importance of tuning.

In 1860, the Danish fairy tale writer (whose fairy tales are perhaps primarily for grown-ups) met Karl Maria Kertbeny--who is supposed to have coined the term "homosexual" (first used in a private manuscript in 1868). The meeting caused immense despair in Andersen; yet what happened has remained a mystery. A careful study of Andersen's fairy tales and papers, however, provides a clue to an answer. The article deals with the horrors of being labelled; but it also discusses labelling as merely a minor part of what goes on in the making of the modern homosexual. Above all, Andersen's moods seem important and identifiable to us as homosexuals; more generally, they seem stirringly close to postmodern existence.