Fantastical Conversations with the Other in the Self: Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) and Her Peter Wimsey as Animus

Dorothy L. Sayers created in her fictional character Lord Peter Wimsey a “contrasexual” figure in her own imagination, with whom she carried on an extended dialogue over many years. C.G. Jung’s concept of the contrasexual archetype, the anima (in men) or the animus (in women), can provide a very useful tool for investigating the presence of this transgendered voice within the self. Specifically in relation to Sayers and her Wimsey, Jung’s theory can uncover the successful conversion of a potentially “bad animus” into a positive one, or, in other words, Sayers’s successful creation in herself of her own “masculine” voice to replace the harmful voice of the patriarchy. Not unlike Hélène Cixous’s concept of the “other bisexuality,” the contrasexual element in Sayers provides a model too for her readers to “speak woman” in a full or rounded way.