Universidade Do Estado Do Rio De Janeiro Centro De Educação E Humanidades Instituto De Letras
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Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro Centro de Educação e Humanidades Instituto de Letras Tatiana Moura Sandoval Queer couples in straight America: a study of representations of straight woman/gay man relationships in A home at the end of the world and Will & Grace Rio de Janeiro 2009 Tatiana Moura Sandoval Queer couples in straight America: a study of representations of straight woman/gay man relationships in A home at the end of the world and Will & Grace Dissertação apresentada, como requisito parcial para obtenção do título de Mestre, ao Programa de Pós- Graduação em Letras, da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Área de concentração: Literaturas de Língua Inglesa. Orientadora: Profª. Drª. Eliane Borges Berutti Rio de Janeiro 2009 CATALOGAÇÃO NA FONTE UERJ/REDE SIRIUS/CEHB C973 Sandoval, Tatiana Moura. Queer couples in straight America: a study of representations of straight woman/gay man relationships in A home at the end of the world and Will & Grace / Tatiana Moura Sandoval. – 2009. 113 f. Orientador: Eliane Borges Berutti. Dissertação (mestrado) – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Letras. 1. Cunningham, Michael, 1952- . A home at the end of the world – Teses. 2. Cunningham, Michael, 1952- . – Personagens – Mulheres – Teses. 3. Teoria queer – Teses. 4. Will & Grace (Programa de televisão : Estados Unidos) – Teses. 5. Televisão – Seriados – Teses. I. Berutti, Eliane Borges. II. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Instituto de Letras. III. Título. CDU 820(73)-3:659.3-055.3 Autorizo, apenas para fins acadêmicos e científicos, a reprodução total ou parcial desta dissertação __________________________ __________________ Assinatura Data Tatiana Moura Sandoval Queer couples in straight America: a study of representations of straight woman/gay man relationships in A home at the end of the world and Will & Grace Dissertação apresentada, como requisito parcial para obtenção do título de Mestre, ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Área de concentração: Literaturas de Língua Inglesa. Aprovado em 31 de Março de 2009. Banca Examinadora: _______________________________________________________ Profª. Drª. Eliane Borges Berutti (Orientadora) Instituto de Letras da UERJ ________________________________________________________ Prof. Dr. Jorge Luís Pinto Rodrigues Instituto Fed. de Educ., Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro - IFRJ _______________________________________________________ Profª. Drª.Maria Conceição Monteiro Instituto de Letras da UERJ Rio de Janeiro 2009 DEDICATION To my daughter Maria Clara, who is the reason why I wake up every morning to struggle for a better life. To my loving husband Eduardo, who has managed to keep up with my sleepless nights and busy weekends; who has been able to understand the nature of my work, although it is high beyond his scope of understanding. To my family: my mother Heloisa, my father Alexandre, and my brother Thiago, for the daily exercise of tolerance and queer understanding; my queer sister Thamires, for defying every heteropatriarchal rule with courage and good humor. To Brilhante, Guto and Vlad, for teaching me that every form of love is possible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several people have contributed to the final result of this work. Among these, I would particularly like to thank: My advisor Eliane Borges Berutti, for all the time, effort and patience devoted to my queer thesis; for encouraging and supporting me whenever I needed; for praising my qualities and criticizing my faults with equal sincerity and kindness; for sharing with me some of your huge knowledge and professionalism. Thank you very much! My Godmother Norma, for the huge help given to me throughout this journey; for taking care of my daughter so that I could study; for staying awake during my sleepless nights to give me support. I would not have made it without you! Professor Ricardo Correia Miguez, for helping me in the earlier stage of my work. Thank you for sparing some of your time to help a stranger find her academic way! My professors and colleagues from UERJ, for the support, the ideas and the wonderful time we spent together. Thank you all! New queer spaces open up (or are revealed) whenever someone moves away from using only one specific sexual identity category – gay, lesbian, bisexual, or straight – to understand and to describe mass culture, and recognizes that texts and people's responses to them are more sexually transmutable than any one category could signify – excepting, perhaps, that of 'queer.' Alexander Doty RESUMO SANDOVAL, Tatiana Moura. Queer couples in straight America: a study of representations of straight woman/gay man relationships in A home at the end of the world and Will & Grace. 2009. 113 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Literaturas em Língua Inglesa) – Instituto de Letras, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2009. Este trabalho tem como propósito estudar a queerness de relacionamentos entre mulheres heterossexuais e homens gays no romance A Home at the End of the World, de Michael Cunningham, e no seriado de televisão Will & Grace. O objetivo é analisar tais relacionamentos do ponto de vista das personagens femininas principais – Clare e Grace, respectivamente –, comparando e contrastando os textos literário e televisual. A dissertação fundamenta-se nos conceitos teórico- metodológicos da teoria queer, nos quais se baseia a análise das personagens e de seus relacionamentos. Contudo, à medida que estabelece um diálogo entre um romance e um programa televisual, foi adicionado um capítulo sobre teoria da televisão. Além de fornecer uma visão geral sobre tal teoria, o capítulo mostrou-se relevante na discussão de Will & Grace. Por meio do estudo mais aprofundado da teoria queer percebe-se que queerness, ao invés de uma identidade fixa, pode ser mais bem compreendida como uma atitude de resistência às normas sociais heteropatriarcais. Portanto, apesar das aspirações convencionais de Grace e Clare, ambas agem de forma queer em várias situações, provando que queerness é um posicionamento que todos podem assumir; até mesmo os heterossexuais. Palavras-chave: Ficção norte-americana. Teoria Queer. Televisão. ABSTRACT The purpose of this work is to study the queerness of relationships between straight women and gay men in Michael Cunningham’s novel A Home at the End of the World and in the TV sitcom Will & Grace. The intention is to analyze such relationships from the point-of-view of the main female characters – Clare and Grace, respectively –, comparing and contrasting the literary and televisual texts. The theoretical-methodological core of this thesis lies on the concepts of queer theory, based on which the characters and their relationships have been analyzed. However, as it establishes a dialog between a literary work and a TV show, a theoretical chapter on television theory has been added. While providing an overview of television theory, this chapter has also been really relevant in the discussion of Will & Grace. Through a deeper study of queer theory, one realizes that queerness, instead of a fixed identity, may be better understood as an attitude of resistance to heteropatriarchal social rules. Therefore, in spite of Grace’s and Clare’s conventional aspirations, they both act queerly in several situations, proving that queerness is a positionality which everyone may assume; even straight people. Keywords: North American Fiction. Queer Theory. Television SUMMARY INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………….…….… 11 1 VENTURING INTO QUEER THEORY …………………………………….… 21 1.1 Queer: Main Ideas and (non) Definitions ……...………………………….. 21 1.2. Different approaches to Queerness: Main Scholars ………………….… 24 1.3. Problematizing “Queer”: Gaps, Incoherencies and Contradictions .... 29 1.4. Homosexuality, Heterosexuality and Straight Queerness …………….. 32 2 “A PERVERSE CREW”: LOVE, FAMILY AND QUEERNESS IN A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD ………………………………………………. 37 2.1. A Home at the End of the World ……………………………………………. 37 2.2. Clare ……………………………………………………….……………….….… 39 2.3. Clare and Jonathan …………………………………………………………… 41 2.4. Clare and Bobby …………………………………………………...………….. 44 2.5. A Queer Family ………………………………………………………………… 48 2.6. How Queer is Clare? ………………………………………………………….. 52 3 THE “SMALL SCREEN” ON THE SPOTLIGHT: A STUDY OF TELEVISION ………………………………………………………………........ 55 3.1. Television: An Introduction …………………………………………………. 55 3.2. From Ostracism to Fame: A Brief History of Gay TV in America …….. 56 3.2.1. The 1970s – From National Marketing to Niche Marketing ………………... 56 3.2.2. The 1980s – New Developments Fuel the Transformations ………………. 57 3.2.3. The 1990s – Revolutionary Ideas Bring Gayness into TV …………………. 59 3.2.3.1. Narrowcasting targets the 18-to-49 years old demographic ………………. 59 3.2.3.2. The Politics of Gay-Themed TV: The “Hip” and “Edgy” Audience ………... 60 3.3. Taking TV Seriously: A Study of Television Theory ……………………. 62 3.3.1. Ask the Specialists: A Brief View of Some Relevant Television Theorists .. 64 3.3.2. Televisual Communication …………………………………………………….. 65 3.3.2.1. How does TV work? ……………………………………………………………. 66 3.3.2.2. Between reality and Fiction ……………………………………………………. 69 3.3.3. Labeling the boxes: Genres, Subgenres, Formats …………………………. 71 3.3.3.1 Laughter and Reflection: the Sober and Ludic Nature of the Sitcoms ……. 73 4. THEY ARE HERE, THEY ARE QUEER, THEY ARE A BIG HIT: THE MIND- OPENING ENTERTAINMENT OF WILL & GRACE ……………………..... 75 4.1. Will & Grace ……………………………………………………………………. 75 4.2. Grace …………………………………………………………………………….