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" Queer sisters : "
Maddison, Stephen.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1094850
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| Doc. No
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TLets362271
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| Main Entry
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Maddison, Stephen.
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| Title & Author
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Queer sisters :\ Maddison, Stephen.
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| College
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University of Sussex
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| Date
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1997
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| student score
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1997
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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Gay male culture is suffused with indications of the importance of womenand bonds with women. Indeed the Stonewall riots, mythologised moment ofthe birth of modern gay politics, are often said to have been catalysed by gaymale grief at the death of Judy Garland. Why should a culture apparentlyfounded on same-sex desire be so preoccupied with relationships acrossgender difference?The thesis attempts to map the shape and effects of bonds with women byusing a materialist analytical framework in relation to texts and their criticalretinue. The first chapter looks at A Streetcar Named Desire, a play that hasengendered significant cultural contest which spans key historical andpolitical shifts in the nature of gay male identity. This chapter attempts toshow how a diverse range of critical engagements with Tennessee Williams'swork, including authoritative and resistant, heterosexual, homosexual andqueer ones, exhibit considerable investment in the proposition that theplaywright's sexuality not only structures a libidinous desire, but a genderidentification.The second chapter situates gay men within the homosocial gender bondsmapped by Eve Sedgwick, and draws attention to the dissident opportunitiesgay male culture has exploited within this narrative system. It goes on toexamine the potential political and cultural links between such strategiesand the resistance of straight women who are also organised as homosocialsubjects. This chapter includes a reading of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction ashomosocial text and looks at a number of autobiographical and journalisticwritings which identify a predominant dissident strategy which I refer to asheterosocial bonds.The latter part of the thesis comprises two complementary chapters. The firstof these, chapter three, assesses the plausibility of heterosocial bonding inthe representations of relationships between straight women, lesbians andgay men in the American situation comedy Roseanne. Chapter four conductsa similar inquiry in relation to Pedro Almodovar and the representationalalignment he makes with women in the film Women on the Verge of aNervous Breakdown. The analysis conducted in both of these chaptersattempts to treat the texts not only as generic and formal representations,but as attempted acts of bonding. The thesis attempts to judge the politicalexpediency and effectiveness of heterosocial bonding, and locates thedifficulty and contingency of such endeavours within the fabric of homosocialstructures.
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| Subject
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Popular culture
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| Added Entry
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University of Sussex
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