Unthinkable, Unprintable, Unspeakable: Transgression in Postwar African American Literature Kirin Wachter-Grene A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: Louis Chude-Sokei, Chair Eva Cherniavsky Sonnet Retman Program Authorized to Offer Degree: English ©Copyright 2014 Kirin Wachter-Grene University of Washington Abstract Unthinkable, Unprintable, Unspeakable: Transgression in Postwar African American Literature Kirin Wachter-Grene Chair of Supervisory Committee: Professor Louis Chude-Sokei English This dissertation argues that African American literary representations of transgression, meaning boundary exploration, reveal a complex relationship between sex, desire, pleasure, race, gender, power, and subjectivity ignored or dismissed in advantageous yet constrained liberatory readings/framings. I trace transgression to confront the critical dismissal of, or lack of engagement with African American literature that does not “fit” ideologically constrained projects, such as the liberatory. The dissertation makes a unique methodological intervention into the fields of African American literary studies, gender and sexuality studies, and cultural history by applying black, queer writer and critic Samuel R. Delany’s conceptualizing of “the unspeakable” to the work of his African American contemporaries such as Iceberg Slim, Octavia Butler, Gayl Jones, Hal Bennett, and Toni Morrison. Delany theorizes the unspeakable as forms of racial and sexual knowing excessive, or unintelligible, to frameworks such as the liberatory. The unspeakable is often represented in scenes of transgressive staged sex that articulate “dangerous” practices of relation, and, as such, is deprived of a political framework through which to be critically engaged. I argue that the unspeakable can be used as an analytic allowing critics to scrutinize how, and why, much postwar African American literature has been critically neglected or flattened. In tracing this negligence I contend with the conservatism of much contemporary African American literary scholarship that continually reads through frameworks of respectability, resistance, and liberation. I am participating in the construction of what I call “Delanyian theory.” To articulate and advance new reading/archival practices of African American literature this project uses the unspeakable and Delany’s use of Jameson’s “paraliterature” to develop a Delanyian theoretical approach through which to analyze transgression. While scholars have acknowledged Delany as a critic in his own right, none to my knowledge have published an application of his theories to the literature of his African American contemporaries. In applying Delanyian theory I advance a reading practice that recognizes and values alternative African American political gestures. The chapters pair texts that were produced during the postwar time period of the 1960s-1980s but that have not been historically read together. That period saw an uprising of liberatory identity politics and counter- cultural movements and their aftermath, such as second-wave feminism, gay rights, Civil Rights, and Black Power, thus I consider how the texts’ use of the unspeakable implicitly or explicitly critiques the epistemological and political structures, including the liberatory, informing the context of their production. Reading transgression in the canonical texts allows me to analyze the unspeakable elided in liberatory framings. Reading transgression in the lesser-known texts, when paired with the canonical texts, allows me to argue for the critical value of paraliterature in reimagining the archive. i Acknowledgements I feel fortunate to have had a rich, generative, incredibly positive graduate school experience. The unflagging financial, emotional, and intellectual support I received from UW’s English department, my committee, colleagues, friends, family, and loved ones proved invaluable in allowing me to complete this dissertation with sustained focus, energy, and enthusiasm. To my committee, I could not have found a better group of kindred spirits to work with. I think this is evidenced by the fact that you told me several times my qualifying exam defense was “fun,” and I would say the same of my dissertation defense. It makes a huge difference to work with people you get along with on a personal level and that get along with one another, and I am grateful for your interest, encouragement, and generosity. Sonnet Retman, thank you for being a personal role model for me in your approach to teaching African American literature and in how you position yourself in the classroom, and for always recommending the newest, most exciting scholarship. Ralina Joseph, thank you for encouraging me to be a more rigorous scholar—your own scholarship and writing is a paragon I aspire to. Eva Cherniavsky, thank you for always seeing the big picture and for helping me to reframe crucial aspects of my argument in much more productive and effective ways. Anis Bawarshi, while you were not on my committee, you were a great mentor to me—a consistently grounding, supportive person I was privileged to work with and am fortunate to know. To my chair, Louis Chude-Sokei, you proved to me with every interaction, intellectual and personal, that you are the primary reason I made the emotionally traumatic move from New York City to Seattle. Although I didn’t know it at the time, you were the reason I came to UW, and working with you has been one of my life’s greatest gifts. Thank you for consistently holding me to the highest standards of excellence that you model by example through your own teaching, scholarship, and intellect. You are the most profound mentor I have had in my academic career, as well as a true teacher and deep influence in my life. To my colleagues and friends, you kept me laughing and having fun and the importance of that cannot be overstated. Thank you to Mandy Hobmeier, Tracy Odell, AJ Burgin, Leanne Day, Liz Janssen, Taylor Boulware, Aaron Ottinger, and Jeff Janosik for being a constant crew of the most badass people around. Thank you to Ariel Wetzel, Alice Pedersen, Lee Einhorn, Ed Chang, Raj Chetty, and Melanie Hernandez for your exceptional generosity and for leading the way by being my professional guides. Thank you to Vinnie Oliveri, Aaron Ottinger, and Zach Tavlin for being the best daily distractions imaginable. Every time I ran into you on campus, my day was made. Thank you to the graduate students in Louis’s Spring 2014 “Race, Sex, and Transgression” seminar, Liz Janssen, Zach Torp, Steph Hankinson, Alex Smith, and Rachael Dunn for being my first lecture audience and for being so receptive to my arguments about Delany’s Hogg. And a special thank you to Barbara Simons, a true confidant, to Leisl Sackschewsky, a steadfast collaborator and motivator, and to Mandy Hobmeier, who was, and always will be my emotional anchor. And to my NYC, San Francisco, and Chicago peeps that sent me constant love from afar—Henry, Cielo, Jeremy, Sarah A., Rebekah, Sarah P., Megan, and Marisa—I feel you with me, always. Finally, and most importantly to Rick, and to my parents Doug and Ardas, there are not sufficient words to thank you for your profoundly deep love, respect, support, and championing of me and of my work. I am who I am, and can do what I do, because you love me. ii Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 One: “Perverse Ambiguity”: The Unspeakable at Work in Hogg and Eva’s Man .......................37 Situating Hogg in Context .........................................................................................................43 Interpretation Violation: Eva’s Man and Critical Over-Determination ....................................62 Two: Claustrophobic “Freedom”: Critiques of the Liberatory in Sula and Trouble on Triton .....91 Sula and The Politics of Respectability .....................................................................................99 Sula’s Negative Affect ............................................................................................................106 Institutionalizing Desire in Samuel R. Delany’s Trouble on Triton ........................................121 Bron as Unspeakable Subject...................................................................................................132 Three: Abjection as Pleasure: BDSM Power Dynamics in the Literature of Octavia Butler and Iceberg Slim .................................................................................................................................144 From “The Matrix of Domination” to Kink Theory ................................................................153 Abjection as Pleasure/Analytic ...............................................................................................157 Eroticized Play-Slavery with “Dangerous” Females ...............................................................169 Four: Embracing Shame in Gayl Jones’ Corregidora and Hal Bennett’s Lord of Dark Places .190 Intraracial Pressure and the Trauma/Resistance Binary ..........................................................200 “Yeah, and Where’s the Next Generation?” The Drive to Failure .........................................215 Embracing Shame ....................................................................................................................226