Searching for “Sodality”: Abjection and Queerness in Naylor and Kenan
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Megan Anne McSwain (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
- Advisor
- David Orvis
Abstract: While other scholars, most notably Trudier Harris, have explored the
similarities and differences between Gloria Naylor’s and Randall Kenan’s texts,
few have considered the transformative queerness these two authors construct in
their narratives. This thesis explores the intimate connection between queerness
and the abject, using Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection. This queerness,
explored in Naylor’s queer community of The Women of Brewster Place and
Kenan’s queer space of Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, emerges during moments
of abjection, and its recognition is the production and destruction of
subjectivities, communities, and ideologies. Consequently, the queerness that
defines the characters and places in the two works deconstructs both oppressive
binaries and heternormative ideology and recognizes sameness, as defined by
Stephen Guy-Bray. Ultimately, the exploration of abjection and queerness in both
Naylor’s and Kenan’s texts is a search for unity that transcends differences and
binaries and a yearning for “queer sodality,” a possibility proposed by
Christopher Nealon that challenges the alienation of queerness.
Searching for “Sodality”: Abjection and Queerness in Naylor and Kenan
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Created on 3/9/2012
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- McSwain, M.A. (2011). Searching for “Sodality”: Abjection and Queerness in Naylor and Kenan. Unpublished master's thesis. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.
- Language: English
- Date: 2011
- Keywords
- abject, queer, subjectivity, community, sameness