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" New queer cinema : "
Davis, Glyn Peter
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1097054
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TLets496465
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| Main Entry
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Davis, Glyn Peter
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| Title & Author
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New queer cinema :\ Davis, Glyn Peter
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| College
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University of Sussex
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| Date
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2004
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| student score
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2004
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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The term 'New Queer Cinema' was coined by critic B. Ruby Rich in 1992, in an attemptto mark a flourishing of independent lesbian and gay film and video work that sheobserved occurring at the time. Key films of the (rather short-lived) movement includedMy Own Private Idaho (Van Sant, 1991), Poison (Haynes, 1991), Swoon (Kalin, 1992),and The Living End (Araki, 1992). To date, very little has been written about New QueerCinema. This thesis is an attempt to fill this gap in scholarship.Chapter One offers an overview of three main perspectives on New Queer Cinema thathave been taken to date, and their implications: Rich's claim that the movies share asimilar aesthetic, which she terms 'Homo Pomo'; Jose Arroyo's assessment of the filmsas affiliated to, and intimately connected with, queer activism of the late 1980s and early1990s; and John Pierson's positioning of New Queer Cinema within a history ofindependent filmmaking in North America. These three viewpoints are useful and valid,but do not begin to account for the complex content and political significance of NewQueer Cinema texts. In Chapters Two, Three and Four, I examine in depth threealternative approaches to these films.In Chapter Two, I argue that New Queer Cinema (and queer culture more broadly)provoked a re-examination of the 'positive images' debate: one of the main ways it didthis was through its representations of queer killers. Chapter Three assesses the role ofspace and place in New Queer Cinema, as many of the key films of the movement are seteither in Los Angeles or on the 'open road'. Finally, Chapter Four investigates thepersistence of campness in queer culture of the 1990s, offering a comparison of NewQueer Cinema and mainstream American movies' uses of camp. The exploration of thistrio of topics enables a nuanced appreciation of the significance of New Queer Cinematexts, and their relation to broader topics of cultural and political debate.
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University of Sussex
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