Lonely Affects and Queer Sexualities: a Politics of Loneliness
LONELY AFFECTS AND QUEER SEXUALITIES: A POLITICS OF LONELINESS IN CONTEMPORARY WESTERN CULTURE By MELISSA CARROLL B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Melissa Carroll, July 2013 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2013) McMaster University (English and Cultural Studies) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Lonely Affects and Queer Sexualities: A Politics of Loneliness in Contemporary Western Culture AUTHOR: Melissa Carroll B.A. (U.P.E.I.), M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Sarah Brophy NUMBER OF PAGES: vii, 347 ABSTRACT In this thesis, I explore the manner in which loneliness has been presented culturally, scientifically, politically, and academically as the asocial antithesis of happiness. I suggest lonely people are presented throughout these discourses as misfits, trapped by their lonely feelings and in danger of entrapping others. I further put forth that the impetus to understand and promote a conception of loneliness as depressive and alienating is politically inflected, strengthening neoliberal models of sociality that rely upon particular notions of good citizenship. As a consequence, Western scientific, academic, and cultural discourses continue to reinforce particular brands of “productive” intimacy (heterosexual, middle/upper class, able-bodied, white, monogamous partnerships), while strategically policing the lonely person’s presumed immaturity, negativity, and illegibility. The thesis begins by considering how recent scientific studies are lodged in evolutionary models, with the implication that they position loneliness as an abnormal and dangerous setback to Western sociability and its progress. As a corollary, I demonstrate that contemporary cultural narratives such as Dan Savage's "It Gets Better Project" that have surfaced in order to address queer, teen suicide, bullying, and violence tend to frame loneliness as a degenerate feeling that warrants survivalist tactics and adaptations away from queerness.
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