FALLING out of the CLOSET: KEVIN SMITH, QUEERNESS, and INDEPENDENT FILM by CARTER MICHAEL SOLES a DISSERTATION Presented To
FALLING OUT OF THE CLOSET: KEVIN SMITH, QUEERNESS, AND INDEPENDENT FILM by CARTER MICHAEL SOLES A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department ofEnglish and the Graduate School ofthe University ofOregon in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy September 2008 11 University of Oregon Graduate School Confirmation ofApproval and Acceptance of Dissertation prepared by: Carter Soles Title: "Falling Out ofthe Closet: Kevin Smith, Queerness, and Independent Film" This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree in the Department ofEnglish by: Kathleen Karlyn, Chairperson, English Jon Lewis, Member, Not from U of 0 Mary Wood, Member, English Michael Aronson, Member, English Janet Wasko, Outside Member, Journalism and Communication and Richard Linton, Vice President for Research and Graduate StudieslDean ofthe Graduate School for the University of Oregon. September 6, 2008 Original approval signatures are on file with the Graduate School and the University of Oregon Libraries. 111 © 2008 Carter Michael Soles IV An Abstract ofthe Dissertation of Carter Michael Soles for the degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy in the English Depmiment to be taken September 2008 Title: FALLING OUT OF THE CLOSET: KEVIN SMITH, QUEERNESS, AND INDEPENDENT FILM Approved: Kathleen Rowe Karlyn My dissertation argues that the film comedies ofKevin Smith, through their willingness to depict and verbalize gender-bending, queer desire, and deviant sexual practices, exemplify the role independent "slacker" cinema played in the 1990s explosion ofAmerican queer media visibility. Couched in witty verbal comedy, Smith's films depict the tensions and dangers Generation-X males face as they negotiate the culturally enforced gap separating male homosociality (intense friendship, male bonding) fi"om explicit male male homoerotic desire in contemporary U.S.
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