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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2018 Brother Outsider: Queered Belonging and Kinships in African American Men’s Literature, 1953-1971 Debarati Biswas The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2612 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] BROTHER OUTSIDER: QUEERED BELONGING AND KINSHIPS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN’S LITERATURE, 1953-1971 by DEBARATI BISWAS A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2018 Biswas ii © 2018 DEBARATI BISWAS All Rights Reserved Biswas iii Brother Outsider: Queered Belonging and Kinships in African American Men’s Literature, 1953-1971 by Debarati Biswas This manuscript has been read and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Robert F. Reid-Pharr Chair of Examining Committee Date Eric Lott Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Robert F. Reid-Pharr Ammiel Alcalay Peter Hitchcock THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK Biswas iv ABSTRACT Brother Outsider: Queered Belonging and Kinships in African American Men’s Literature, 1953-1971 By Debarati Biswas Adviser: Robert Reid-Pharr Brother Outsider: Queered Belonging and Kinships in African American Men’s Literature, 1953-1971 builds on the work of women-of-color feminists since the late 1960s and queer-of-color critique in the works of José Esteban Muñoz, Robert Reid-Pharr, Roderic Ferguson, and Nadia Ellis, in order to chronicle the emergence of a queer tradition in mid twentieth century African American men’s literature. Through literary analysis and archival research on marginal figures of African American culture during this period, this dissertation proposes that the black pulp novels of Chester Himes, Robert Deane Pharr, Clarence Cooper Jr., and Iceberg Slim perform a queer critique of and offer modes of resistance to the Cold War era ideology of racial liberalism and racial capitalism: the two key formulations designed to ensure the victory of American democracy nationally and globally. By challenging racial liberalism’s paradoxical reproduction of the old logic of racial segregation in tandem with the new logic of democratic equality codified through liberal antiracisms, these writers spotlight the creation of racialized geographies within the white bourgeois nation space. Brother Outsider attempts to underscore the spatial practices through which black female bodies and black queer bodies reclaim racialized geographies and make them black by establishing an alternative mode of emplacement – through the routes of desire and a wild or illicit capacity to imagine that which is Biswas v not here yet. These writers thus formulate the possibility of elsewheres that are coded through non-hierarchical discourses rather than paternalistic discourses of ownership. From their experiences of living life as addicts, single room occupancy residents, inner-city dwellers, convicts, polyamorous black queer men, and migrants across the urban landscape, these writers author alternative models of solidarities across different modalities of oppression in their works. Brother Outsider is therefore an intervention into black studies and black diasporic studies, and broadens our understanding of movement within the nation space rather than beyond. From the perspective of displaced bodies, Brother Outsider describes how the capitalist project of the Cold War was accomplished through de facto segregation and the lumpenproletarization of racialized bodies in spaces marked by confinement, regulation, and surveillance. However, Brother Outsider also highlights queer worldmaking activities such as the ritual of writing, the capacity to love and empathize, and the more mundane rituals of sex, addiction, and gossip, through which the displaced and dispossessed racialized subjects formulate alternate modes of belonging and kinships. In each of the chapters in this dissertation, I focus on the representations of in-migrations of marginalized people whose journeys seem to take them nowhere; they are forever in transit, in motion, and dispossession punctuate their journeys. By demonstrating the terrible realities of such movements, only made bearable through flights of fancy, I attempt to highlight the existence of an alternative aesthetics that loosely binds these African American writers into a black queer tradition that had coexisted alongside the nationalistic black aesthetics that was more certain about its political goals and dreams. Biswas vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In these times, when immigrants of color are viewed as dangerous and deemed a threat to this nation’s health, I am fortunate to have found steadfast friendship and love in spite of being such a “dangerous” being. I found home in New York City because of my friends and family. To my most treasured friends who have been there for me through personal trials and the toils of graduate school, I am eternally grateful: Martha and Richard Nochimson (for inspiring me to keep going even when going became impossible, for the many wonderful soirées, that Broadway show, and for the work you do), Szidonia Haragos (for being a wonderful friend and the most considerate roommate one can ever find in graduate school), Sucharita Bhaumik, Debipriya Chatterjee, Samprit Banerjee, and Utathya Chakraborty (for giving me the gift of laughter and shelter when I needed it the most), Prithviraj Guha, Durba Basu, Prabal De, and Kajori Chaudhuri (for helping me pack my belongings and move to several rented apartments in this city and for creating that safe space to share our mutual feelings of homesickness and anxieties in a foreign land), Nancy Golike (for being my favorite coffee date and for letting me play with her two most adorable feline partners), and Pushpanjali Banerjee (for being my kindred spirit, a wonderful writer whose craft inspires me, and for being one my loudest cheerleaders). Zee Dempster and Jerry Watts made The Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC) feel like home. I am thankful to Zee Dempster for her constant support and friendship. Jerry Watts was more than a mentor and teacher to me. His unflagging commitment to students and his ability to form connections with people irrespective of their job titles within the Graduate Center, are virtues I will struggle to emulate. Before I began my time at the Graduate Center, when I was debating where to go for my graduate studies, I happened to read Robert Reid-Pharr’s Black Gay Man (2001) and my choice became easy. I still cherish the day when Robert called me to welcome me to the English Department. He showed me the possibilities of queer antiracist thought. Robert has been everything that one could ask for in a dissertation adviser. He complimented my work even when it was not the best and showed me its potential. His unwavering belief in my work in spite of my procrastinations has helped me finish this project and made me confident of my place in academia. From the conception of this project to its completion I have benefited from his ruthless encouragement and creative instruction. Ammiel Alcalay has not only been a fantastic committee member, but he also led me to these understudied gems in African American Literature, that became the lifeblood of this project. I am thankful for his generous comments on my work and for his prompt replies to my many nervous late night emails. I couldn’t have finished this project without the unwavering support of Peter Hitchcock. His incisive but constructive comments helped me improve my work. I am fortunate to have him on my dissertation committee. Thank you to Mario DiGangi and Eric Lott for signing countless papers and for writing those letters that helped me maintain my immigration status as an international student in the department. My work was made possible by a number of grants and fellowships from the Graduate Center and external sources including the Provost’s Fellowship, IRADAC Dissertation Fellowship, IRADAC/Schomburg Digitization Fellowship, and other travel grants. Kristin Moriah, Kristina Huang, and Sean Gerrity provided much needed motivation and critical feedback during our IRADAC Fellows meetings. I am grateful for the friendship of Biswas vii Velina Manolova, my fellow dissertator-in-the-struggle. Velina offered invaluable help by sharing her fellowship letters with me. I cherish and look forward to our delightful venting sessions. I am lucky to have met Zohra Saed in graduate school. She kept me grounded and helped me finish. Christopher Ian Foster is the best colleague one can ever have. Thank you for helping me organize our fantastic MLA panel. Lavelle Porter has been a wonderful friend and colleague and I thank him for sharing his work with me. I couldn’t have finished this work without the unflinching support of the ex-chair of Hunter College, Christina Alfar. She helped me secure a visa and enter the U.S. again when I lost my passport in France. Our current chair at Hunter College, Sarah Chinn has moved mountains to provide a comfortable and friendly place for adjuncts like me. Kathie Cheng and Sharmaine Brown are the best colleagues one can possibly have. They know how to make adjuncting less stressful. I could not ask for a more loving, funny, and supportive family than the one I have been gifted by fate. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Amit Kumar Biswas and Sibani Biswas, to my cousin and nurturer, Puspa Sarkar, to my sister and most precious friend, Ananya Mukhopadhyay, to my wonderful brother-in-law, Gautam Mukhopadhyay, and to the newest member of our family, Daana Mukhopadhyay, whose name means wings in Bengali.

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