Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2014 Queer Emplotment: Lesbian Caretaking in North American Canonical Fiction from 1980 – 2011. Penelope Gay Dane Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Dane, Penelope Gay, "Queer Emplotment: Lesbian Caretaking in North American Canonical Fiction from 1980 – 2011." (2014). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1569. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1569 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. QUEER EMPLOTMENT: LESBIAN CARETAKING IN NORTH AMERICAN CANONICAL FICTION FROM 1980 – 2011. A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate FacuLty of the Louisiana State University and AgricuLturaL and MechanicaL CoLLege in partiaL fuLfiLLment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of EngLish by Penelope Gay Dane B.A., RoLLins CoLLege, 1997 M.A., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2005 M.F.A., Louisiana State University, 2008 May 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No one writes aLone. We sit at our desks, aching to get it just right, feeling as if the torture wiLL never end and thinking perhaps the best thing might be to throw our Laptop out the window. I often imagined as I wrote this dissertation that no one in all the land could feeL as awfuL as I did. It took brownies, margaritas, potato chips, and chocoLate. It took crying and shouting and Laughing. And it took aLL of you, rooting me on, pushing me to finish every Last sentence. I sat at my desk and I wrote aLone, but I was not aLone. And so, I dedicate this project to aLL of you. I couLd not have done this without your heLp. David Riche, thank you for reading my chapters at the Last minute and taLking me down. Meg MilLer - you've seen me through two degrees at LSU and I am so gratefuL. Joya Misra, my first advisor from UMASS, Amherst: thank you for the recommendation Letters. I am ever comforted knowing you are rooting for me. Thank you to Kurt UnkLe for the rice that fueLed me as I wrote. Dr. SoLimar Otero, I cannot believe it is over! Thank you for taking this journey with me, for seeing what I couLd not see in myseLf and pushing me for revision after revision until I did the very best I could. AlL of your attention and advice has mattered - from the impromptu conversations in coffee shops about my research questions to the phone caLLs and dinners to teLL me to chiLL out, to the hours you aLL have spent reading and commenting on this project. Thank you to the rest of my committee, Dr. Katherine Henninger and Dr. ELsie Michie, for so much wonderfuL advice on how to turn this into a book. Thank you to Bobbi Parry and Scott Murray for taking me out to dance it off. And to Bobbi for aLL the waLks. Thank you to Tara Smithson for the waLks and the taLks and 365 ways to not write your dissertation. Thank you to Kristi Richard Melancon for being the voice of reason. Thank you to aLL my adversaries; there were times you were the fueL I ii needed to keep going. Thank you Stephanie Nash, for teLLing me to take a week off. Thank you to RonLyn Domingue for getting it, for the Last minute editing and to you and Todd Borque for the peacefuL Baton Rouge respite during my defense. Thank you to Anna West for the taLks and the car Loans and for being there. Thank you to Megan Feifer for the smiLes and Laughter. Thank you to Anne FeLtovich for teLLing me my computer was going to disappear if I didn't finish that chapter. To my ancestors Eunice Dane, John Dane, and Grace Dane, Marjorie White TuLLis, James TuLLis, thank you for your foresight and for what you Left behind. Thank you to my parents for making the brain that wrote this project, for the Laughter and heLp and support through this process. Thank to my sister Ana, for Last minute editing. And thank you to Cara Jones, my partner, my Love, my poor dear who Lived with the growLiest dissertation monster to ever take a pen to the page. Thank you. I couLd not have done this without your emotionaL and financiaL support. There are thousands of smaLL kindness that heLped me through this. It may not be on here, but I remember. And thank you to aLL the MagicaL Lesbians, everywhere. I see you. iii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION: MAGICAL LESBIANS, LEZ-BEING, AND TEMPORALITY Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 How I Use the Term lesbian in this Study ........................................................................................ 11 Specific Chapter, Topics, Texts ............................................................................................................ 12 CHAPTER TWO SHUG AVERY FROM ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE AS A MAGICAL LESBIAN Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 19 Past Criticism on The Color Purple ..................................................................................................... 24 Shug’s Disembodied Soothing and Protecting .............................................................................. 31 Shug’s Embodied Rescuing, Caring, and Connection ................................................................. 43 Caring, Desire, Gender Performativity, and the Senses ............................................................ 50 Secondary Pleasure .................................................................................................................................. 59 Protecting Motherhood from Lesbian Desire ............................................................................... 63 Shug and Men .............................................................................................................................................. 66 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER THREE TEMPORALITY AND MAGICAL LESBIANS: AUNT RAYLENE FROM DOROTHY ALLISON’S BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA AND THE DIALECTIC-DIALOGIC Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 69 Previous Criticism on Bastard Out of Carolina ............................................................................. 70 Aunt RayLene, Queer Futurity, and Chrono-Normativity ......................................................... 83 Aunt RayLene, Feminine Performance, and the Invisibility/Visibility Dialogic-DiaLectic .................................................................................. 91 RayLene’s Touch and Attempts to Stop Victim BLamin ........................................................... 107 Accepting RayLene’s Touch ................................................................................................................ 111 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 114 CHAPTER FOUR TIME IS RELATIVE: AUNT MAY & DIALOGISM IN LOUISE ERDRICH’S SHADOW TAG Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 116 Criticism on Louise Erdrich ................................................................................................................ 120 Riel’s Point of View ................................................................................................................................ 125 May as Wish Granter and Temporal Guide ................................................................................. 130 From DiaLectic to DiaLogic Mothers ................................................................................................ 134 Queering the Moment ............................................................................................................................ 146 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 152 iv CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION Magical Lesbian Interventions .......................................................................................................... 155 Directions for Future Research ......................................................................................................... 163 Issues of Form........................................................................................................................................... 164 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................................................................