Exorbitance and Queer Futurities in the Well of Loneliness, Lesbian Pulp Fiction, and Radical Feminist Manifestos
FEET DOWN, NEW PLANET: EXORBITANCE AND QUEER FUTURITIES IN THE WELL OF LONELINESS, LESBIAN PULP FICTION, AND RADICAL FEMINIST MANIFESTOS A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English By Sally Baker, B.A. Washington, DC March 19, 2018 Copyright 2018 by Sally Baker All Rights Reserved ii FEET DOWN, NEW PLANET: EXORBITANCE AND QUEER FUTURITIES IN THE WELL OF LONELINESS, LESBIAN PULP FICTION, AND RADICAL FEMINIST MANIFESTOS Sally Baker, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Jennifer Natalya Fink, Ph.D. ABSTRACT “Feet Down, New Planet” explores exorbitance and queer futurities in The Well of Loneliness, lesbian pulp fiction, and radical feminist manifestos. It extends queer theory to the texts as a way to expand them beyond the limits of their original sociocultural publication contexts. This thesis examines models of reproduction, queer embodiment, and world-building in The Well of Loneliness, lesbian pulp fiction, and radical feminist manifestos in order to examine how the authors write worlds beyond the limits of liberal feminist propriety, and imagine radical queer futures through oozing poetic sensibilities. “Feet Down, New Planet” contributes to queer theories of excess by mapping a cartographic and affective history of queer literary excess, and curates the exorbitant world-building frameworks Radclyffe Hall, Valerie Taylor, Jill Johnston, and Valerie Solanas imagine. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Feet Down…………………………………………………………………...... 1 Chapter I: Flesh Temporalities: Womb as Queer Counterpublic in The Well of Loneliness… 4 Introduction: The Well of Loneliness………………………………………………….. 4 Situating the Womb………………………………………………………………….
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