W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2005 (Un)conventional coupling: Interracial sex and intimacy in contemporary neo-slave narratives Colleen Doyle Worrell College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, and the American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Worrell, Colleen Doyle, "(Un)conventional coupling: Interracial sex and intimacy in contemporary neo-slave narratives" (2005). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623470. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-y5ya-v603 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. (UN)CONVENTIONAL COUPLING Interracial Sex and Intimacy in Contemporary Neo-Slave Narratives A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the American Studies Program The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Colleen Doyle Worrell 2005 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy CIvtuJiVjL-1 Colleen Doyle Worrell Approved by the Committee, April 2005 Leisa D. Meyer, Cd-Chalr ss, Co-Chair {Ul LI-m j y Kimberly Rae Connor University of San Francisco 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To my parents for their boundless support and faith. For my husband, Sterling, and my children, Sam, Ansley, and Eliza, whose love sustained me throughout this process and reminded me daily of the important things in life. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements v Abstract vi Introduction 2 Chapter I. Reassessing the Genre of the Neo-Slave Narrative 15 Foundational Studies 17 Recent Developments 28 New Directions 38 Rethinking “Genre” 46 Chapter II. Unspeakable Desire in Sherley Anne Williams’Dessa Rose 74 Power and Erotic Subjectivity 80 Misreading Desire 85 Unspeakable Desire 116 Negotiating Interracial Intimacy 133 Recasting Unspeakable Desire 146 Chapter III. “Third Space Otherness” in David Bradley’sThe Chaneysville Incident 150 A Hybrid Text 155 Interstitial Perspectives 161 Divisive Notions of Difference 165 Difference as Performative 187 Chapter IV. Triangulated Racial Desire in Valerie Martin’sProperty 204 The Shifting Geometry of Racial Desire 210 Resistance 234 Triangulating Racial Desire. 239 Female(-Female) Desire 248 Reconfiguring Desire 264 Conclusion 273 Works Cited 285 Vita 310 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply grateful for the guidance, advice, and critical input of my co-chairs, Professor Leisa Meyer and Professor Lynn Weiss. Dr. Meyer and Dr. Weiss are careful readers whose thoughtful comments and astute criticism have influenced this dissertation in important ways. I am also indebted to them for their steadfast support and encouragement throughout this process. It has been a pleasure working with them both. Additionally, 1 am thankful for the contributions of my readers, Professor Arthur Knight and Professor Kimberly Rae Connor. Professor Knight is an inspiring teacher and a meticulous critic whose influence has helped me to become a better student and scholar. Professor Connor has been a gracious, enthusiastic, and incisive critic of my work since we began our long-distance friendship almost three years ago. Her scholarship and her ideas have shaped my own and enhanced this project considerably. Moreover, Professor Connor’s unwavering support and her faith in my work inspired and invigorated me. I am also eternally grateful to the sole member of my dissertation support group, Dr. Karen Veselits. Dr. Veselits served as sounding board for my ideas and her consummate artistry as an editor has vastly improved this manuscript. More importantly, her friendship and her confidence in me have sustained me during this process. I cannot thank her enough for how she has helped me over the years. I would also like acknowledge the web support of provided by friends and family. In particular I want to thank Melissa Paul who has been my most ardent supporter over the years. I am indebted to her for her love, energy, and encouragement. I also want to recognize my friends at the Plymouth Public Library, Beverly Ness and Lee Regan, who helped me to create an office away from home. Finally, I wish to thank my family, especially my parents to whom this dissertation is dedicated. I also dedicate this dissertation to my husband, Sterling, who never wavered in his commitment to me and this project. For him I reserve my deepest appreciation. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT “(Un)Conventional Coupling” initiates a more expansive critical conversation on the contemporary neo-slave narrative. The dissertation’s central argument is that authors of neo-slave narratives rely on the politicized theme of interracial coupling to both reimagine history and explore the possibility of social transformation. To establish a framework for my particular focus on interracial intimacy, this study extends the boundaries of the genre by adopting Paul Gilroy’s theory of the black Atlantic. This theoretical paradigm serves as a provisional framework for both accommodating and analyzing the complexity of authorship, nationality, and influence within this large body of work. This dissertation interprets neo-slave narratives’ preoccupation with interracial sex and intimacy as a compelling reason to situate the critical analysis of the genre within a more expansive context. The prevalence of discourses and representations of interracial desire, sexuality, and intimacy within the genre reveals a preoccupation with cross- cultural connection. Additionally, authors of neo-slave narratives rely on black-white coupling to explore the concepts and realities of “race.” Indeed, interracial intimacy provides an effective mechanism for this literature to invigorate a dialogue about “race” and why it still matters in the twenty-first century. Adopting the term (un)conventional coupling to destabilize racialized ideologies of sexuality and desire, this project reads black-white coupling as a trope that represents a complex and conflicted sense of transracial intimacy in these novels. This study analyzes the representation of transracial intimacy in three different novels: Sheri ey Anne Williams’ Dessa Rose, David Bradley’s The Chaneysville Incident, and Valerie Mailin’s Property. Each chapter demonstrates the different ways in which these authors rely on the trope of black-white coupling to construct the double-edged critique of black Atlantic political culture. First, this trope exposes a hidden history in order to reveal a more comprehensive and nuanced version of slavery and its myriad legacies. Secondly, representations of interracial intimacy allow authors to posit utopian possibilities out of relations of difference by creating a space for transformative acts of social reinvention. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (UN)CONVENTIONAL COUPLING Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION When Deborah E. McDowell and Arnold Rampersad put out a call for papers for a session on “Slavery and the Literary Imagination” at the 1987 English Institute, they were surprised by the “lively response” it generated (vii). Their “original desire” was to impel scholars to “pay closer attention to the body of writing known as the slave narrative.” Instead, the rich variety of submissions exceeded the boundaries of McDowell’s and Rampersad’s initial proposal. The unexpected response, as they put it, “helped to redefine our subject for us.” Their “enterprise” shifted from encouraging scholarship on the “classic” slave narrative to facilitating a more complicated dialogue on the “profound impact” slavery has had on “the national literature” (vii). The edited volume that sprang from this conference continued the critical conversation and stands as a foundational text for the analysis of the genre of the neo­ slave narrative. Published in 1989,Slavery and the Literary Imagination “attempts to recognize something of the breadth and depth of [slavery’s] impact” by attending to the way in which “the work of several writers, both white and black,” contemplates “the meaning of this institution to American life” (vii). In their introduction McDowell and Rampersad express their hope for further exploration and their desire that “the ideas and approaches generated” by the volume will inspire studies of additional texts “so that a more accurate and comprehensive sense of the subject will emerge” (x). It is tempting to favorably assess the impact of McDowell’s and Rampersad’s inaugural enterprise by comparing it to subsequent panels of the same nature. In 2003, for 2 Reproduced