Alternative Imaginaries, Gothic Temporalities: an Ethnography of the Cultural Construction of Aging in the Goth Subculture
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ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: ALTERNATIVE IMAGINARIES, GOTHIC TEMPORALITIES: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF AGING IN THE GOTH SUBCULTURE Leah J. Bush, Master of Arts, 2016 Thesis Directed By: Professor Jo B. Paoletti Department of American Studies This ethnographic thesis examines the cultural construction of aging in the Goth subculture in Baltimore, Maryland. Formed in Britain in the late 1970s, Goth retains a relatively high number of Elder Goths who participate in the subculture beyond their youth. By combining interdisciplinary analyses of Goth in the American imaginary with the lived experience of Goths over 40 in everyday life and the nightclub, I argue that participation in the Goth subculture presents an alternative to being aged by culture. Elder Goths subvert constructions of age-appropriate normativity by creating individualized “Gothic temporalities” to navigate through the challenges of adulthood and imagine their futures. This thesis underscores the importance of reconceptualizing aging as a lifespan project. Deconstructing age categories moves authority away from structural forces which support ageism and places power in the hands of individual agents. ALTERNATIVE IMAGINARIES, GOTHIC TEMPORALITIES: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF AGING IN THE GOTH SUBCULTURE by Leah J. Bush Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2016 Advisory Committee: Professor Jo B. Paoletti, Chair Professor Laurie Frederik Professor Mary Corbin Sies © Copyright by Leah J. Bush 2016 Acknowledgments Attending graduate school ten years after one receives her bachelor’s degree is no simple task. I am indebted to the faculty of the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, all of whom encouraged me to pursue this perhaps slightly unusual research project. First and foremost, my advisor and chair, Dr. Jo B. Paoletti, who took me under her wing as a post baccalaureate student with an academic background in the social sciences. Dr. Paoletti supported my academic development through reading endless versions of my writing on the Goth subculture, supported my attendance at conferences, and sharing a lot of laughter over what exactly constitutes age appropriateness. She taught me two of the most important things I learned in graduate school: when to put the books down and start writing, and when to put developing ideas aside for future projects. The expertise of Dr. Mary Corbin Sies has been invaluable, introducing me to new modes of thinking about my fieldwork observations and encouraging me to think of nightclubs as cultural landscapes and spaces for aging. During my first visit to UMD, Nancy Struna gave the class the advice which encouraged me to move away from the social sciences and pursue graduate work in American Studies. As a field of “broadening,” American Studies allowed me to research Goth beyond the nightclub and within the cultures of everyday life. Nancy guided me through the twists and turns of early American Studies theorizing, and Dr. Sies brought me to the finish line by introducing me to contemporary theories in the field. I thank fellow Portlandia viewer Dr. Jan Padios for encouraging me to apply to the AMST program in 2013 and guiding me through the IRB application process. Speaking with ethnographer and AMST Ph.D. graduate Dr. Asim Ali about UMD’s focus on the cultures of everyday life confirmed my decision to attend the program, and his advice during editing kept me on the right track. I am grateful for the feedback provided over my course of study by Dr. Paoletti and the members of her writing support group at UMD: Kevin Kim, Kalima Young, and Donnesha Blake; and my colleagues in the AMST M.A./Ph.D. cohort of 2014. I am incredibly proud to have been part of a department which produces such challenging and provocative scholarship. But this is not an American Studies research project alone. I thank my committee member Dr. Laurie Frederik in the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies for pushing me out of my comfort zone and introducing me to the endless fun of studying performances onstage and in everyday life through ethnographic methodologies. How many other graduate students in the humanities can say that they witnessed an impromptu lucha libre match and took part in a tango lesson as part of their methods course? Dr. Olivia Cadaval and Dr. Sojin Kim, my Museum Studies Certificate practicum advisors at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, appreciated my research topic from the day I walked into the office as an intern and took time from their busy days curating the Festival to provide practical feedback in the writing and editing stages. ii The idea for this study was born somewhere between a New Year’s Eve show with Skydivers in Alexandria, Virginia, and a bookshop I stumbled into on vacation in Salem, Massachusetts. Being a guitarist in Skydivers introduced me to the world of nightclubs and has taken me from playing Goth locales to playing at the French Embassy and back again. For everything involving music, I thank my bandmate Armando Cuéllar. My dear friend Kerry Sandler, who accompanied me on the trip to Salem, encouraged me to buy all of the books in the store on the Goth subculture in sight, and she has been an endless wellspring of support since we met by chance through our shared love of the 1980s synth band Depeche Mode seven years ago. Darlene Smith understands the importance of completing my master’s like no other, and I appreciate her friendship and sense of humor every day. Gwyddion Zee opened her Seattle home to me for two weeks while I attended the International Gothic Conference in July 2015, and her relentless optimism over fifteen years of friendship has kept me going when the writing seems endless. During fieldwork, Mike Barbier kept an eye out for my safety, and Linda Pfleiderer provided a home (or rather, storefront) away from home to talk about Goth, the universe, and everything. I am grateful to my parents, Robin and Gary Bush, for tolerating a house spilling over with mysterious books with creepy titles for the past few years; my brother, Jacob Bush, for keeping me entertained with an endless parade of Civil War costumes; my aunt, the Rev. Terri Cofiell, for her advice on surviving graduate school; and my grandparents, Bob and Hattie Cofiell, for always finding my life interesting. To anyone I may have forgotten in these acknowledgments, know that my end of semester absentmindedness makes me no less grateful to you. Finally, this study would not exist without my informants; the Elder Goths of Baltimore: Linda Pfleiderer, Neska Lapicki, and Michael Belt; and the Baltimore based musicians Roy Retrofit and Armando Cuéllar. I thank you for letting me into your lives. I can only hope I did your words and amazing, hilarious personalities justice. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... ii List of Figures .............................................................................................................. vi Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Research Questions ................................................................................................... 5 Methodologies......................................................................................................... 10 Thesis Structure ...................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2: Literature ................................................................................................... 19 Subcultural Studies and the Goth Subculture: An Overview.................................. 19 Scholarly Perspectives on Goth .......................................................................... 21 The Cultural Construction of Age........................................................................... 25 Perspectives on Subcultures and Aging .............................................................. 27 Ethnographic Methodologies .................................................................................. 34 Ethnography in American Studies ...................................................................... 34 Ethnographic Approaches to the Study of Aging Subcultures ........................... 35 Queer Theorizing .................................................................................................... 39 Queer Temporalities............................................................................................ 41 Queer Phenomenology and Material Deviance .................................................. 44 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 47 Chapter 3: Goth and Aging in the American Imaginary ............................................. 49 Goth in Mainstream American Culture................................................................... 49 Temporalities of Aging in Portlandia ..................................................................... 52 Fred and Carrie: Age Anxiety Writ Large .......................................................... 55 Jacqulin and Vince: Gothic Temporalities .........................................................