Incandescently Queer: Reading Desire in Culture
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INCANDESCENTLY QUEER: READING DESIRE IN CULTURE By JOEL CHRISTIAN ADAMS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2007 1 © 2007 Joel Christian Adams 2 To Brad and my mother 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a dissertation involves long periods of loneliness, isolation, second-guessing, incredible ups and equally precipitous downs. A dissertation also means finding wonderful compatriots and co-conspirators, friends in strange places, and close companionship with many colleagues It is, in short, a lot like being in love and it has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my life. This project would not have been possible without the dedication, loyalty, patience, and support of my dissertation committee. Stephanie Smith, my director, worked closely with me for nearly a decade, pushing, goading, and challenging me in ways I hope she always will. Her guidance and friendship was and remains invaluable. Stephanie’s commitment to the powerful and life altering potential of ideas is inspiring and often hard to live up to. Her questions aim for and often hit the core of any thinking and, as such, make that thinking better. Together David Leverenz and Susan Hegeman taught me to read in a new way. Both are scholars I highly esteem. They always encouraged me in my abilities and backed me up when even I felt some of my readings went too far. Eric Segal, my outside reader, provided an objective and engaged voice and perspective that greatly aided my research and arguments. I owe much to them all. A committee, a candidate, and a dissertation are only as strong and vibrant as the department and the university that fosters them. My years in the Department of English at the University of Florida (1997–2007) afforded me opportunities to explore, instruct, research, and write that were unmatched by other departments and institutions. My work with many people is apparent in this dissertation and their voices are as strong as my committee’s and my own: Amitava Kumar, Pamela Gilbert, John Leavey, John Murchek, Maureen Turim, Scott Nygren, David Leavitt, Kim Emery, Rita Smith, and others. The stressful and anxiety-laden writing and editing process was made infinitely more livable due to the shared efforts of a dissertation 4 writing collective comprised of Kenneth Kidd, Mindy Cardozo, and Cathlena Martin, as well as to the hard work of my two proofreaders at PaperCuts, friends and former colleagues Erica Nikolaidis and Jessica Espinosa. At Johns Hopkins and later at Emory, Michael Moon’s encouragement and dialogue helped this project in ways I doubt he realizes. With his kind adoption of my final chapter, he also gave me my first experience of having my writing taught to others. Jim Provenzano offered his friendship and conversation along with his memories of Queer Nation/ACT-UP. Over the years I was fortunate to be generously funded both departmentally and by the university. This generosity allowed me to work with interesting and intelligent people outside of my home department and to forge common perspectives with many working in the departments of Art and Art History, Religion, and History. I offer this as a tribute to the University of Florida, which as an institution is capable of unsurpassed scholarship so long as respects and nurtures those who produce it. The Queer Theory Reading Group began as an experiment and ended up following me throughout my graduate career. This project would be unthinkable without the QTRG and the many late night conversations shared with Nishant Shahani, Robin Nuzum, Renuka Bisht, Emily Garcia, Tom Love, Brittany Luck and many others. Thanks also to that loose collection of grads, alum, and friends, who, though not unified by name, nonetheless acted as my gang in grad school: Jennifer Simmons, Idoia Gorosabel, Adam Nikolaidis, Cortney Grubbs, Melissa Mellon, Andrea Woods, Kate Casey-Sawicki, Cari Keebaugh, Lisa Hager, Paul Lightcap, Jesse Zeigler, Harun Thomas, Jessica Magnani, Craig Smith, and Brian and Jaimy Mann. I owe my personal gratitude and love to the Adams and Talbot families as well as to my extended family: Wayne Hew, Maramay Soriano, Aubrie Hesla, and especially Luke Miller and Anna Brigevich. In late 2001, an anonymous donor gave me the greatest gift when she helped 5 me to see again. If anyone ever gleans anything from this project, I would hope it be to enroll as an organ donor. Finally and most importantly, my love and thanks go to my partner Brad. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: RULES FOR INCANDESCENTLY QUEER READING ....................11 What is Incandescent Reading?..............................................................................................11 Rules for Queer Reading ........................................................................................................12 Rule I: Queer is Queer.....................................................................................................12 Rule II: Always Assume Queer Desire ...........................................................................15 Rule III: Queer Reading is Performative and Interdisciplinary.......................................16 Rule IV: Queer Reading is Dangerously Utopian ...........................................................19 Living Up to the Rules / Chapter Overview ...........................................................................20 2 WHAT’S NEW: NOTES ON A QUEER JURISPRUDENCE..............................................22 Six Years On...........................................................................................................................22 Wartime Worries and the “What’s New?” .............................................................................25 Toward (Queer) Legal Theories .............................................................................................30 Legally Defining “Queer” ...............................................................................................30 Outsider Jurisprudence and Critical Legal Studies .........................................................34 Eight Strategies for a Queer Jurisprudence .....................................................................37 Frontlines: Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), Romer v. Evans (1996), and Lawrence v. Texas (2003) ..................................................................................................................................38 Concluding Notes ...................................................................................................................53 3 DESPERATELY SEEKING SAILORS.................................................................................55 Promiscuous Proximity...........................................................................................................55 Clement Greenberg's Corporal Antinomies............................................................................59 J.C. Leyendecker and the Charisma of the Homoerotic .........................................................66 Charles Demuth and the ‘nth Whoopee of Sight....................................................................72 Paul Cadmus—The Happy Modernist....................................................................................78 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................85 4 DANGEROUSLY DISEASED DESIRE...............................................................................87 The Banner of Contamination ................................................................................................87 Cold War Containment...........................................................................................................89 Paranoid Strains in America ...................................................................................................92 What is Genealogy?................................................................................................................95 A Genealogy of Disease .......................................................................................................101 7 Disease in Space and the Body......................................................................................101 Nostalgia........................................................................................................................105 Disease, Class, and the Nineteenth Century..................................................................109 Coda: Cold War Threats and Secret Societies......................................................................114 Concluding Notes .................................................................................................................119 5 THE THINGS (WE MAKE) CHILDREN DO ....................................................................121 Archival Anxieties: Ruth Baldwin, Meet Mr. Dayneford ....................................................121 The Many Faces of Edward Prime-Stevenson......................................................................124 The Secret Life of Schoolboys .............................................................................................129