Des Grieux and the Origins of Teleny

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-540
Author(s):  
Gregory Mackie
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Publishing History ◽  
Modern Novel ◽  
Insight Into

Scholarly discussions of the anonymous homoerotic novel Teleny (1893) invariably confront the question of its mysterious origins. This is understandable, since for many commentators what has been dubbed “the first gay modern novel” represents the opening chapter in a story about queer print culture that may (or may not) have been authored by Oscar Wilde. Joining the methodologies of bibliography and queer theory, with particular emphasis on temporal directionality and sequencing, this article offers new insight into Teleny's history in light of its virtually unknown 1899 prequel, Des Grieux (The Prelude to “Teleny”). “Des Grieux and the Origins of Teleny” represents the first detailed critical analysis of Teleny's literary progeny, and I pursue this analysis by attending to publishing history, authorial speculation, and both novels’ engagement with Victorian sexology. Although the bibliographer Peter Mendes avers that “Des Grieux was indeed written by the same hand(s) as Teleny, and possibly before Teleny at that,” I contend that its appearance six years after the first appearance of Teleny articulates a queer textual genealogy for the two novels, situating Teleny in an inverted relation to a prequel that postdates it.

Intimacy as Transgression and the Problem of Freedom

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kym Maclaren
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Critical Insight ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
What Matters

“To consent to love or be loved,” said Merleau-Ponty, “is to consent also to influence someone else, to decide to a certain extent on behalf of the other.” This essay explicates that idea through a meditation on intimacy. I propose, first, that, on Merleau-Ponty’s account, we are always transgressing into each other’s experience, whether we are strangers or familiars; I call this “ontological intimacy.” Concrete experiences of intimacy are based upon this ontological intimacy, and can take place at two levels: (1) at-this-moment (such that we can experience intimacy even with strangers, by sharing a momentary but extra-ordinary mutual recognition) and (2) in shared interpersonal institutions, or habitual, enduring, and co-enacted visions of who we are, how to live, and what matters. Through particular examples of dynamics within these layers of intimacy (drawing upon work by Berne and by Russon), I claim that we are always, inevitably, imposing an “unfreedom” upon our intimate others. Freedom, then, can only develop from within and by virtue of this “unfreedom.” Thus, what distinguishes empowering or emancipating relationships from oppressive ones is not the removal of transgressive normative social forces; it is rather the particular character of those transgressive forces. Some transgressions upon others’ experience—some forms of “unfreedom”—will tend to promote freedom; others will tend to hinder it. This amounts to a call for promoting agency and freedom not only through critical analysis of public institutions, practices and discourses, but also through critical insight into and transformation of our most private and intimate relationships.

Muriel Spark's Early Fiction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Stage Play ◽  
Insight Into

This book presents a detailed critical analysis of a period of significant formal and thematic innovation in Muriel Spark’s literary career. Spanning the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, it identifies formative instances of literary experimentation in texts including The Comforters, The Driver’s Seat and The Public Image, with an emphasis on metafiction and the influence of the nouveau roman. As the first critical study to draw extensively on Spark’s vast archives of correspondence, manuscripts and research, it provides a unique insight into the social contexts and personal concerns that dictated her fiction. Offering a distinctive reappraisal of Spark’s fiction, the book challenges the rigid critical framework that has long been applied to her writing. In doing so, it interrogates how Spark’s literary innovations work to facilitate moments of subversive satire and gendered social critique. As well as presenting nuanced re-readings major works like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, it draws unprecedented attention to lesser-discussed texts such as her only stage play, Doctors of Philosophy, and early short stories.

scholarly journals “It's Like Mixing Paint”: Songwriting Gender Diversity and Alternative Gender Cultures with Young People as an ‘After-queer’ Methodology

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elly Scrine
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Alternative Gender ◽  
Perfect World

This paper conceptualises songwriting as an ‘after-queer’ approach for exploring notions of gender and sexuality with young people. The article draws on songs created by seven groups of young people in music-based workshops which took place in schools with participants aged between 14–17. During these workshops, songwriting was used to explore the participants' imaginings of what gender might look like in their "perfect world". 'After-queer' scholarship is introduced and referred to throughout the paper as it relates to queer theory and research with young people, particularly focusing on discourses of risk and vulnerability that emerge across these fields. The paper highlights the value of creative and arts-based methodologies in queer research, through which expansion and questions of possibility, alternative, and identity can be raised and responded to. 'After queer' is offered as a useful lens for critical analysis, particularly in light of complex questions related to the promotion of "diversity" that emerged through the findings.

Masculinity and moral licensing in the locker room: a critical analysis of culture, gender, and leisure.

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-35
Author(s):  
Kate E. Evans ◽  
Dorothy L. Schmalz
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
The Other ◽  
Female Empowerment ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Moral Licensing ◽  
Locker Room ◽  
The One ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Men's leisure has long been considered a 'male preserve' in which male purview is the norm, and women are relegated to subordinate roles. Current research and events indicate that masculinity continues to dominate leisure settings and impinges on women's leisure via factors ranging from social gender norms to overt acts of violence. Drawing on current research, cultural trends, and feminist theory and philosophy, this chapter examines the juxtapositions in culture and rhetoric that on the one hand promote female empowerment, and on the other provide footing for a contrary argument that men and masculinity are under threat. Related research also provides insight into a possible path forward including men's engagement in leisure violence prevention and implications for women's leisure and the leisure field.

scholarly journals Volatility drivers on the metal market and exposure of producing countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Renner ◽  
Friedrich W. Wellmer
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Dynamic Reaction ◽  
Security Of Supply ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Mineral Production ◽  
Metal Market ◽  
Demand Patterns ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract The paper focuses on minor metals and coupled elements and aspires to understand individual incidents of imbalance on the mineral markets during the last 100 years and gain insight into the acting dynamics—those dynamics are commodity-specific but remain largely unchanged in their nature to date—and to identify the factors in play. The conclusions allow for a critical analysis of the widespread security-of-supply narrative of industrialized countries. They point at a market that is mostly a buyers’ market, in which prices and their volatility are largely dictated by shifting demand patterns and much less by supply constraints. Neither high country concentration nor poor governance seem to have a substantial or lasting impact on market balance. Short-term market imbalances are generally neutralized by a dynamic reaction on the demand side via substitution, efficiency gains or technological change. The paper also assesses the impact of those quickly shifting demand patterns and the related price volatilities on producing countries. It shows how mineral price volatilities can expose developing countries’ economies to significant economic risk, if their economy is heavily dependent on mineral production. Two cases that illustrate country exposure are explored in detail—the saltpeter crisis in Chile and the tin crisis in Bolivia. Both led to state bankruptcy. The paper concludes with an attempt to quantify economic exposure of producing countries to price volatilities of specific metals and suggests policies that adapt to the characteristic challenges of highly volatile demand.

scholarly journals Rainbow Lanyards: Bisexuality, Queering and the Corporatisation of LGBT Inclusion

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-368
Author(s):  
Thomas Calvard ◽  
Michelle O’Toole ◽  
Hannah Hardwick
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
Lgbt Rights ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Younger Generation ◽  
Woman Working ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Minority Identities

This article presents the powerful account of Hannah, a woman working in a UK university who identifies as bisexual and queer. Hannah’s voice reflects a younger generation of workers who have come of age with the emergence of queer theory and activism supporting greater LGBT rights. Her narrative illustrates the tensions around developing an inclusive stance towards diverse sexual identities at work. Hannah’s account resonates with critical views of diversity management and inclusion practices, where non-normative minority identities are reduced to corporate categories and initiatives for management by majorities. More specifically, the account presented also covers the complexities and challenges of discussing and disclosing gendered sexualities at work, namely bisexuality, which serves as an illustration of ‘queering’ – a resistance towards understanding identities as fixed, manageable and binary. The article provides insight into how and why sexual identity matters for issues of power and conflict at work.

The Comics of Alison Bechdel

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Comic Strip ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
The Third ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Lesbian Studies ◽  
Insight Into

The Comics of Alison Bechdel is the first full-length volume dedicated to the comics art of Alison Bechdel, beginning with her early work on the long-running serial comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and including original scholarship on her acclaimed memoirs Fun Home and Are You My Mother?. The volume is organized into three sections. The first looks at Bechdel’s place in lesbian comics and considers her work in the context of gay and lesbian studies and queer theory. The second looks at kinship, affect, and trauma in Bechdel’s work, with a focus on interiority and the artist’s experiments with comics form. The third looks at place, space, and community, considering the significance of rural queer life, topography and mapping, and forms of LGBTQ community. Archival research and theories of the archive provide new insight into Bechdel’s art, including the composition of Fun Home and the development of the lesser-known Servants to the Cause, which appeared in The Advocate in the late 1980s. An introductory essay orients readers to Bechdel’s career—her childhood in Beech Creek, her involvement in LGBTQ activism and lesbian comix, her move inward towards life writing, and the mainstream cultural recognition prompted by the adaptation of Fun Home into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical—as well as to current trends in Bechdel scholarship.

Feeling alive: Voices of incarcerated youth in We Are Alive

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-170
Author(s):  
Denise Tse-Shang Tang
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Incarcerated Youth ◽  
Correctional Institutions ◽  
Social Conformity ◽  
Youth Incarceration ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Rich Data ◽  
And Training ◽  
Insight Into

This article presents a case study of a documentary film to demonstrate the need to look beyond conventions for insight into youth incarceration. Yau Ching’s (2010) We Are Alive documents a series of media production workshops conducted in juvenile correctional centres and training centres in Hong Kong, Macao and Sapporo, Japan. We Are Alive is a significant media text for analysis for two reasons. First, it is a youth-led documentary that offers a glimpse into settings that are often inaccessible to researchers, and second, it adopts a comparative perspective on three East Asian societies. The film offers rich data for sociological analysis as a point of access to understanding the lives of young people detained in correctional institutions in Asia. In analysing it, this article engages the contesting issues of social conformity, criminal justice, youth resistance and teenage masculinities and femininities through a close reading informed by a theoretical matrix comprising queer theory and cultural studies in an inter-Asian context.

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