An Introduction to Queer Literary Studies: Reading Queerly is the first introduction to queer theory written especially for students of literature. Tracking the emergence of queer theory out of gay and lesbian studies, this book pays unique attention to how queer scholars have read some of the most well-known works in the English language.
Organized thematically, this book explores queer theoretical treatments of sexual identity, gender and sexual norms and normativity, negativity and utopianism, economics and neoliberalism, and AIDS activism and disability. Each chapter expounds upon foundational works in queer theory by scholars including Michel Foucault, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Lee Edelman. Each chapter also offers readings of primary texts –ranging from the highly canonical, like John Milton’s Paradise Lost, to more contemporary works of popular fiction, like Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot. Along the way, An Introduction to Queer Literary Studies: Reading Queerly demonstrates how queer reading methods work alongside other methods like feminism, historicism, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis.
By modelling queer readings, this book invites literature students to develop queer readings of their own. It also suggests that reading queerly is not simply a matter of reading work written by queer people. Queer reading attunes us to the queerness of even the most straightforward text.
Author(s): Will Stockton
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 213
City: London
Cover
Endorsements
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
Notes on the Text
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Brief History of Queer Theory
The Puzzle of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20
Smear the Queer
Before Queer Theory
Five Ways of Reading Sonnet 20
1. Identity
Pin the Identity on the Pardoner
Sexuality and Sexuality Identity
Paranoid and Reparative Reading
In Search of the Author: The Wilde Trials and The Picture of Dorian Gray
Psychoanalysis and the Incoherent Self
Surface and Depth, Text and Subtext: Nella Larson’s Passing
2. Normativity
From Woman-Man to Gay Man: BADBOY’s The Scarlet Pansy
Heteronormativity and Homonormativity
Narrative and its Discontents: Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
Without, Before, and Within
Margery Kempe and Queer History
3. Negativity
The Sin of Sodom
No Future for a Sodomite
Queer Irony: Two Ways of Reading Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot
Some Anti-Anti-Social Theses
Contact and Utopia: Samuel R. Delany’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
4. Economy
Marxism and Queer Theory
Alienation and the Bigger We: Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues
The Neoliberal Revolution
Poetry as History and Ideology: Dionne Brand’s No Language is Neutral
The Early Modern Economy of Sodomy
The Treasure of the Realm: Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II
5. Disability
AIDS and Queer Theory
AIDS on Stage: Tony Kushner’s Angels in America
Disability Studies
Disabled Narrative: Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood
Once More on Sexual Difference
Compulsory Disability: John Milton’s Paradise Lost
Epilogue: After Reading
Index
