Gay, lbian, bisexual, queer and transgenr cricism (Chapter 17) - The Cambridge History of Lerary Cricism

Contents:

• GAY CRICISM
• 17 - GAY, LBIAN, BISEXUAL, QUEER AND TRANSGENR CRICISM
• GAY THEORY AND CRICISM
• 12 - PSYCHOANALYTIC LERARY CRICISM OF GAY AND LBIAN AMERIN LERATURE

GAY CRICISM

Sexual relatns between men, or even jt the sexual sire of one man for another, is the generally accepted crern of gayns whe middle-class Ameri today. The same fn of homosexualy was ed whe Amerin workg-class culture around the turn of the twentieth century: only men who allowed themselv to be perated by a man durg sex and behaved a tradnally feme manner—submissive, y, flirtat, “soft”—were nsired homosexual. A siar problem for ntemporary whe middle-class assumptns about homosexualy is offered by ancient Athens, where there was no polar opposn between homosexual and heterosexual behavr.

17 - GAY, LBIAN, BISEXUAL, QUEER AND TRANSGENR CRICISM

In fact, wasn’t until the neteenth century that the notn of homosexual inty and even the word homosexual were adopted Anglo-European and Amerin culture. This is why many gay men today prefer to refer to themselv as gay: the word homosexual is associated, for many, wh the belief that homosexualy is a medil or psychologil disorr. The pot here is that attus toward homosexualy, like attus toward sexualy general, differ wily om one place to another and om one historil perd to another.

The tense antigay sentiment that emerged an pecially ncentrated and vilent form Ameri durg the early 1950s and that lgers today do not reprent some kd of universally held attu toward, or even fn of, homosexualy. How do beg gay fluence the way one se the world, se onelf and others, creat and rponds to art and mic, creat and terprets lerature, or experienc and exprs emotn?

In a heterosexist culture such as the twenty-first century Ameri, gay sensibily clus an awarens of beg different, at least certa ways, om the members of the mastream, domant culture, and the plex feelgs that rult om an implic, ongog social opprsn. For other gay men, drag is a form of polil activism ed to draw attentn to gay issu, cricize homophobic ernment and relig polici, and raise funds to fight AIDS. Also, general, the lbian muny’s adoptn of male clothg and groomg (for example, butch attire) or of androgeno clothg and groomg (for example, lbian-femist attire Lbian, gay, and queer cricism of the 1970s) has tend to be a matter of personal self-exprsn and/or quiet polil statement that hasn’t had the theatril qualy of gay drag.

GAY THEORY AND CRICISM

Therefore, although butch lbians equently have been beaten and raped, pecially durg such reprsive perds as the 1950s, their cross-drsg never drew the natnal attentn foced on gay drag.

Th, the flamboyant theatrily of Judy Garland and of former basketball star Dennis Rodman—and the flamboyant irreverence of Bette Midler or of Madonna (for example, thk of the tim that Madonna wore her bra on the outsi of her clothg)—are appreciated for their mp quali by many gay fans. It n’t help but affect the way gay men see the world to know that the feral ernment was reticent to fund AIDS rearch until the disease beme a threat for heterosexual cizens as well, to be aware of the lgerg reluctance of some medil profsnals to treat AIDS patients or to treat them wh rpect, to enunter discrimatn the workplace agast people who have AIDS or who are HIV posive (who do not have AIDS but who will prumably velop the disease at some future pot), and to put forth the daily physil and emotnal labor of rg for iends and loved on dyg of AIDS.

For example, like lbian crics, gay crics attempt to terme what might nstute a gay poetics, or a way of wrg that is uniquely gay; to tablish a gay lerary tradn; and to ci what wrers and works belong to that tradn. They try to terme the sexual polics of specific texts, analyzg, for example, how gay characters or “feme” men are portrayed both gay and heterosexual texts.

12 - PSYCHOANALYTIC LERARY CRICISM OF GAY AND LBIAN AMERIN LERATURE

Fally, gay crics intify and rrect heterosexist terpretatns of lerature that fail to regnize or appreciate the gay sensibily rmg specific lerary works.

To get an ia of the kds of sights to lerature the approach n produce, let’s take a brief look at three specific exampl: an analysis of Walt Whman’s poetic voice, a study of the reprentatn of gay inty the work of ntemporary novelist Edmund Whe, and a fense of the gay sensibily Tennsee Williams’s plays.

“Gay inty, ” Ral observ, “is the explic subject of many of Whe’s works, ” and many of his gay characters “fail to achieve a herent sense of self, ” a failure that “n be attributed to the polics of sexual and genr difference” (175).

In other words, Whe exam the damagg effects of homophobic Amerin culture on the gay men and boys who grow up wh , and s most damagg effect is the ternalized homophobia, the learned self-hatred, of his gay characters. Ined, Ral pots out that Whe’s gay characters experience a distct spl wh themselv between what they nsir their “sential selv” and “a homosexual self as Other that they themselv nceive as beg separate” (176) om them. Therefore, “we might view Whe’s novels as part of the historil apparat for revealg a gay subject [selfhood] as rponds to polil prsure om the culture at large” (176).

Fally, Camp and the Gay Sensibily, Jack Babc argu that gay sensibily has somethg to offer everyone: the relevance of s sights is not limed, as some crics believe, to the gay muny. As a se pot, Babc observ that crics have failed to fully appreciate the sights to human life offered by Tennsee Williams’s hero—the most famo of whom is probably Blanche Dubois A Streetr Named Dire (1947)— ee the characters reprent Williams’s own emotns as a gay man. In other words, Williams’shero are Williams himself drag, so to speak, exprsg his own anxieti about beg gay: for example, his battle between the mands of the flh and those of the spir, his sire to be promiscuo and yet still keep his pri, and his fear of agg a youth-oriented, homosexual subculture.

So when Maxe Flk, The Night of the Iguana (1962), says that we all reach a pot our liv, sooner or later, where we mt settle for somethg that works for , she is speakg not jt to the gay muny but to the entire human muny.