The Colonial Closet: Homosexual Desire and Imperial Power in Damon Galgut’s "Arctic Summer"

This article examines the entanglement of homosexual desire and imperial power in Damon Galgut’s Arctic Summer, a biographical novel that reimagines the life of E. M. Forster during his travels to India and Egypt. Through a combined framework of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s concept of “the closet” and Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism, the study investigates how Forster (fictionalized as Morgan) negotiates his sexual identity within the intersecting structures of heteronormativity and colonial authority. Close reading of the novel demonstrates that while India and Egypt appear to offer Morgan a sense of freedom unavailable in Edwardian England, this perceived liberation is deeply dependent on the racial hierarchies and asymmetrical power relations inherent to British colonial rule. The analysis reveals that Morgan’s self-expression is facilitated by the systems that objectify and marginalize colonized bodies. Ultimately, this article argues that Arctic Summer presents “the closet” not as a static space but as an adaptive strategy shaped by shifting configurations of power. In tracing the paradox of Morgan’s “closet,” it contributes to broader discussions of queer agency in colonial spaces.