CFP: Queer Heterosexuality (9/15/04; NEMLA, 3/31/05-4/2/05)

NEMLA Convention, Cambridge, MA, March 31-April 2,
2005

Literary Representations of Queer Heterosexuality

As columnist Tristan Taormino notes, "dialogue and
diversity within the LGBT community has ushered in a
new identity: the Queer Heterosexual," and she adds:
“The LGBT movement has also had broad, significant
effects on sexuality—not just queer sexuality, but the
sex lives of everyone.” While the identity may be new,
the practices have long been depicted, sometimes
elliptically, in literature. Calvin Thomas's edited volume,
_Straight With A Twist_ (2000), represents an attempt
to reconcile "Queer Theory and the Subject of
Heterosexuality." Jonathan Dollimore's _Sexual
Dissidence_(1991) and Christopher Craft's _Another
Kind of Love_ (1994) address the same issues from
slightly different perspectives. This panel seeks to
explore non-normative heterosexual practices in the
literature of any period. Works by Sade, Byron, Shelley,
Swinburne, Sacher-Masoch, Wilde, and even classic
Victorian novels such as _Great Expectations,
Wuthering Heights_, and _Dracula_, can be read in
light of this theory. With the advent of modernism
(Joyce, Hemingway, and others), Queer Heterosexuality
began to come out of the closet and has emerged
more fully in the post-modern era. Yet little theoretical
work has been done on the subject despite its
depiction in the work of Kathy Acker, Mary Gaitskill, and
others. This panel seeks to out the Queer Heterosexual
wherever he or she may be found in literary expression.
Especially welcome are papers exploring what Kaja
Silverman calls "the libidinal politics" of these texts.

Abstracts of up to 500 words by September 15, to:
Richard.Fantina_at_fiu.edu, or by post.

Richard Fantina
Florida International University
3000 NE 151 Street, AC1 381
North Miami, FL 33181

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Received on Fri Sep 03 2004 - 10:57:06 EDT