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Lesbian Feminism and Contemporary Literature

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Lesbian Feminism and Contemporary Literature The Affective Temporalities of Intimacy: Lesbian Feminism and Contemporary Literature Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktorin/Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) eingereicht an der Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin von Maria Olive Alexopoulos Prof. Dr. -Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst Prof. Dr. Ulrike Vedder Präsidentin Dekanin der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin der Philosophische Fakultät II Gutachterinnen: 1. Prof. Dr. Helga Schwalm 2. Prof. Dr. Eveline Kilian Eingereicht am: 24. April 2017 Tag der Verteidigung: 15. Dezember 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………….3 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG…………………………………………………………………………4 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 5 1.1 NEGOTIATING THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS OF INTIMACY .................................................. 5 1.2 PUBLIC INTIMACIES, PRIVATE POLITICS .............................................................................. 8 1.3 LITERARY INTIMACIES ................................................................................................... 14 1.4 LESBIAN FIGURES AND FIGURATIONS ............................................................................... 16 1.5 LESBIAN EXISTENCE .................................................................................................... 20 1.6 QUEER THEORY AND LESBIAN INVISIBILITY ..................................................................... 23 1.7 DEFINING LESBIAN LITERATURE .................................................................................... 26 1.8 ANN-MARIE MACDONALD ......................................................................................... 28 1.9 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 29 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................... 34 2.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 34 2.2 THE ‘TURN’ TO AFFECT ............................................................................................... 35 2.3 QUEER TEMPORALITIES .............................................................................................. 46 2.4 FEMINISM AND TIME ................................................................................................. 53 2.5 THE QUEER TEMPORALITIES OF TRAUMA....................................................................... 56 2.6 HISTORICIZING INTERDISCIPLINARY THEORIES OF TRAUMA ................................................ 57 2.7 INSIDIOUS AND PUNCTUAL TRAUMA ............................................................................. 61 2.8 LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS OF TRAUMA ...................................................................... 63 2.9 THE SPECTRE OF LESBIANISM IN SURVIVOR NARRATIVES .................................................. 67 3 UTOPIAN CONFIGURATIONS OF LESBIANISM ......................................... 70 3.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 70 3.2 HISTORICIZING THE UTOPIAN CATEGORY OF LESBIANISM ................................................. 70 3.3 THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL LESBIAN FEMINISM ......................................................... 72 3.4 “FRENCH FEMINISM” AND LESBIANISM ......................................................................... 76 3.5 POLITICAL TRANSFORMATION AND LITERARY FORM ........................................................ 81 3.6 BUTCH-FEMME NARRATIVES ....................................................................................... 84 3.7 ABUSE NARRATIVES IN LESBIAN FICTION ....................................................................... 87 3.8 LESBIAN EXISTENCE IN BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA ......................................................... 90 3.9 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 96 1 4 THE QUEER TEMPORALITY OF WARTIME IN FALL ON YOUR KNEES 98 4.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 98 4.2 NARRATIVE STRUCTURE .............................................................................................. 99 4.3 TIMES OF PEACE ...................................................................................................... 104 4.4 MOURNING, MELANCHOLY, AND THE MODERN GIRL .................................................... 112 4.5 TIMES OF WAR ....................................................................................................... 117 4.6 GENRE, AFFECT, AND PRAYING FOR WAR .................................................................... 120 4.7 THE FEMININE TEMPORALITIES OF LANGUAGE .............................................................. 126 4.8 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 136 5 AFFECT, FAMILY AND THE NATION IN THE WAY THE CROW FLIES ... 138 5.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 138 5.2 “CONTE-NOUS ÇA, MAMAN”: THE STORY OF JACK AND MIMI ........................................ 141 5.3 THE HAPPINESS COMMANDMENT OF CHILDHOOD ........................................................ 153 5.4 LESBIAN EXISTENCE IN THE WAY THE CROW FLIES ........................................................ 156 5.5 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 167 6 QUEER DISORIENTATION IN ADULT ONSET ........................................... 170 6.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 170 6.2 THE DISORIENTATION OF QUEER NORMATIVITY ............................................................ 172 6.3 MEMORY AND THERAPEUTIC CULTURE ....................................................................... 176 6.4 TRAUMATIC MEMORY AND CONTEMPORARY DISORIENTATION ....................................... 179 6.5 PROGRESS AND GUILT .............................................................................................. 182 6.6 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 194 7 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 198 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................... 209 2 Abstract This dissertation situates itself within the second decade of the twenty-first century, specifically within the contested space of the contemporary mainstreaming of queer and feminist politics and increasing access to formal legal equality for gays and lesbians. While representations of gays and lesbians in literature, film, and popular cultures have multiplied and feminism has achieved a previously unimagined level of acceptance and popularity, vehement debates surround the question of where queer and feminist political energy should be directed and whether the transformative objectives of such politics have been left behind in favour of those which pursue forms of inclusion. Critiques of post- feminism by feminist scholars such as Angela McRobbie (2009) echo Lisa Duggan’s (2002) notion of ‘homonormativity’, which describes the increasing complicity between institutionalized, domesticized homosexuality and neoliberal mechanisms of economic and social power. Likewise, Jasbir Puar (2007) has critiqued the ways in which rights discourses produce narratives of gender exceptionalism and what she calls ‘homonationalism’. Such debates raise questions about the extent to which feminist and queer subjects can be presumed to be inherently political. This dissertation intervenes in contemporary debates in queer and feminist politics through an analysis of literary fiction. Rather than focusing on formal equality mechanisms and discourses, its engagement with sexual politics is situated in the realm of affect and intimacy. Taking as its point of departure the second-wave feminist claim that personal and intimate transformation are at the heart of political transformation, this dissertation uses a seemingly anachronistic paradigm to critique linear narratives that position queerness and queer politics and theory in the present tense and lesbian feminism in the past. It argues that the utopian impulses of second-wave lesbian feminism overlap with those of contemporary queer politics, and claims that both foreground practices and conceptions of intimacy that mirror and prefigure broader social change. Exploring the complex ways in which politics are enacted via intimacy, this dissertation takes as its object of study the figure of the lesbian in contemporary Anglo- American literature, specifically engaging with the fiction of Canadian writer Ann-Marie MacDonald. Situating the figure of the lesbian at the centre of this analysis signals a specific historical, political, and social context. The lesbian, as a figure or trope, or lesbian existence, as a way of doing feminism, offers a productive point of departure for such considerations because of the ways in which both have, over time, been variously and often simultaneously
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