A geographer reads Geography Club: spatial metaphor and metonym in textual/sexual space

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by  Brown M.

cultural geographies 200613:313(cid:2)339
A geographer reads Geography
Club: spatial metaphor and
metonym in textual/sexual space
Michael Brown
Department of Geography, University of Washington
In this paper I offer a geographer’s reading of Brent Hartinger’s American teen novel Geography
Club. My intellectual aim is to extend work on the spatialities of the closet, especially those that
appreciatebothitsfixityandfluidityinspace.Idothisbydrawingoutthespatialmetonymyaround
closet space, alongside its metaphoric(cid:2)material dimensions. Specifically, my reading focuses on
fourthemestoachievethisaim:(a)theubiquityofspatiallanguagethroughoutthetext,ofwhich
closet space is one part, (b) the materiality of the closet space in the narrative, (c) the metaleptic
andsynechdochal qualitiesofmetonymybetweenthe closetandthe world,and(d)the placeless
andfluidityas importantsignifiers ofthe closetinthe maincharacter’sexperience.Theseinsights
arenotonlymeanttoadvancespatialunderstandingsoftheclosetinmorecomplexanddynamic
ways, but also to prompt conversation between cultural studies, queer theory, and human
geography.
BrentHartinger’s2003teennovel,GeographyClub,isacoming-outstorysetduringa
few weeks around a contemporary high school in a small, generic American city.1
Duringapivotalscene,asmallgroupofqueerteenagersfindoneanotherandwantto
form a mutual-support group at their public high school, without coming out of the
closet to their homophobic classmates.2 They strategize over its name:
‘Toobadwecan’tsayit’sagayclub,’Teresesaid.‘That’dkeepeveryoneaway.’Itwasajoke,butitdidn’t
soundlikeone,becauseshesoundedsobitter.
‘Kevinhadn’tsaidanythinginawhile,andIfigureditwasbecausehe’dchangedhismindandnowhe
didn’twantanythingtodowiththisclubthing.Orme.
SoIwassurprisedwhenhisfacesuddenlylitup,andhewhispered,‘Igotit!Wejustchooseaclubthat’s
so boring, nobody would ever in a million years join it!’ He thought for a second, ‘We could call it
GeographyClub.’
Weallconsideredthis.Thistime,Isawsmilesbreakoutallaround.
GeographyClub,Ithought.Nohighschoolstudentsintheirrightmindswouldeverjointhat.
Inotherwords,itwasperfect.’3
And so ‘geography’ becomes a textual metaphor for abject boredom, but in this text is
alsoaspatial metaphorforthecloset.NowitistruethatgeographyintheUnitedStates
#2006EdwardArnold (Publishers) Ltd 10.1191/1474474006eu362oa
Michael Brown
is sometimes a benighted discipline, and cries of geographical illiteracy amongst high-
school students are perpetual, thus Kevin’s cunning plan should work.4 Especially in
the US, geography is often treated as a sort of intellectual closet. It largely has been
folded into the historian-dominated ‘social studies’ in American schools, where it is
often reduced to dry, static descriptions of almanac facts, compared to history’s
relativelymoreexcitingsenseofprocess,unfoldingcausalityanddynamism.5Andwith
adolescentssotypically inan intense stageof self-absorption,asubject that frequently
exploresforeignpeopleinfarawaylandssurelylosesappeal.Themetaphorcanbethe
reality.
Yet academic geography is more a way of seeing the world, rather than a specific
body of knowledge about it.6 It is a vantage-point that emphasizes the spatiality of
social relations and identities. And it is along these lines that I argue that the far
more interesting geography in Geography Club can be gleaned from the text. It
is not the clever metaphor of the discipline-as-boredom that strikes me as
paradigmatic, but the way the spatial metaphor (cid:2) and metonym (cid:2) of the closet is
worked through by Hartinger’s text. While it has become a bit of a dead metaphor,
we must recall that the closet itself is a spatial metaphor: one that stands for the
concealment, denial, erasure and oppression of queer people and culture, and a
central category in queer theory and analysis.7 Yet it also is a material, spatial form
of oppression. It geographically delineates and demarcates homophobia and hetero-
normativity.
InwhatfollowsIofferareadingoftheclosetinGeographyClub thatemphasizesthe
metonymicandmaterialdimensionsofthecloset.Thoughshortandsimplywritten,the
text powerfully and richly captures the world of the high school, with all of its
component places in all their cultural complexity or simplicity, as the case may be.
High-schoollifeisanintenselylivedmilieuforadolescentsanditsculturalgeographies
must be carefully decoded and navigated for social and emotional success.8 As queer
teens resist their more destructive forces, and ultimately rework them into more truly
democratic spaces, we can appreciate both the fixity and fluidity of closet space
without sacrificing its materiality.
By focusing on the metonymic and material dimensions of closet space in the
book, I extend two related strands within critical and queer geography that seek
to develop more fluid, dynamic, and processual framings of queer space generally:
the long-standing but not generally queer-theory influenced body of geographical
work on writing, representation and literary texts9 as well as spatial metaphor
specifically,10 especially that which deconstructs the metaphor/material dualism,11
and the more limited work on closet space itself12 and critiques thereof. While there
may well be implications of this analysis for the growing geographical literature on
children’s and adolescents’ sexualities as well, it was not my goal here to explore
these.13
My argument proceeds as follows. First I introduce the text by offering a brief
summary of the plot and introduction to the main characters. The concepts of
spatial metaphor and metonym are explicated next, with an emphasis on the ways
that metonym in particular is underemphasized in the context of work on the
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closet. I also show how implicit assumptions about the materiality of the closet,
and the worlds within and outside it, are textually marked by these figures of
speech. I then trace out these claims textually. Four themes are traced: the ubiquity
of spatial language throughout the text overall, the materialization of metaphor
(in particular, the significance of material spatial arrangements and practices in
closeting), the materialization of metonym (displacements between the closet
and the world, in terms particularly of synecdoche (cid:2) the closet as a material
space in the world (cid:2) and metalepsis (cid:2) the material world within the closet), and a
sense of placelessness and mobility that also connects the closet and the world
within Geography Club. The broader implications of my geographical reading of
the novel for both geographers and cultural critics are discussed in the concluding
section.
GeographyCluband closet space
Geography Club is written in the form of a first-person narrative by Russell
Middlebrook, a 16-year-old gay student at Robert L. Goodkind High School in a
fictional small American city (see Table 1).14 Closeted Russell discovers that the
handsome high-school jock, Kevin Land, is also gay. Soon after that revelation, his
best friend, Min, also comes out as bisexual. Along with Min’s girlfriend, Terese, and
alternative-radical Ike, they form a small mutual support group to survive the
heteronormativity endemic in high-school culture. Their challenge is how to hold
these secret meetings surreptitiously in the structurally heteronormative spaces of
the high-school world. They each come from different cliques, and being seen
together would raise suspicion. They decide to meet in a classroom after school, but
call their association ‘Geography Club’ because the name is so unappealing to their
peers that no one else would want to join, and thereby learn the real point of their
gathering.
Russell’sromancewithKevinblooms,andhispopularityskyrocketsashejoinsKevin
ontheschoolbaseballteam.Theclub’scloset-strategy,however,isputtothetestwhen
the straight, bubbly African American Belinda Simpson insists on joining the club (cid:2)
even after she learns of its true purpose. The relations in the club are further tested as
Russell must still cope with heteronormative pressures to date the annoying Trish
Baskin, so that his straight friend Gunnar (who doesn’t know Russell is gay) can date
her gorgeous-but-shallow friend Kimberly Peterson. Angered by her unrequited
affections, Trish spreads rumours that Russell is the secretly gay kid students have
been whispering about in the hallways.15 This ironic outing destroys Russell’s
popularity. It also causes Kevin to spurn Russell’s affections publicly, in order to
preserve his own popular-jock status.
Meanwhile,RussellalienatesMinbyrefusing(alongwithKevin)toinvitethebullied
andostracizedloseroftheschool,BrianBund,intoGeographyClubbecauseheisalso
ostracized so mercilessly for his low status. In an attempt to salvage his popularity,
Russell goes along with the jocks in their hallway teasing of Brian Bund, which Min
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TABLE1 Dramatis personae (inorder ofappearance)
Russell Middlebrook Theprotagonist, whoisgay,and Memberof GeographyClub
part ofthe ‘nerdyintellectual
crowd’.
Kevin Land Russell’s love interest andeventual Memberof GeographyClub
boyfriend, ahandsome baseball
jock.
Min Russell’s close friend,whois Memberof GeographyClub
bisexual. She isChinese American.
She goes outwith Terese Buckman.
Is partof the‘nerdy intellectual
crowd’.
Gunnar Russell’s close friend,whois Knows aboutGeography Club,
straight. Is alsopart ofthe‘nerdy butnotits true purpose.He is
intellectual crowd’. nota member.
Brian Bund Theschool loser,whois Not amember,but because
mercilessly harassed byeveryone. of hisconstantharassment by
Eventually Russellhimself teases many students, Minarguesto
Brian topreserve hisnewfound Geography Clubthat they
popularity. Brianheroically and shouldextend him membership.
selflessly claims that he isthe
mysterious gay student. Heis the
only one tobefriend Russell after
he alienates clubmembers and
loses hispopularity.
Terese Buckman Min’s girlfriend. Kind ofbutch. Memberof GeographyClub
Girl jock.
Ike Gay student.Part ofthe‘lefty Memberof GeographyClub
intellectual crowd’.
Kimberly Peterson Gunnar’s love interest, a straight Not amember
girl.
Trish Baskin A straightgirl, Kimberly’s best Not amember
friend. Wantsto dateRussell.
Eventually Trish andRussell
double datewith Gunnar and
Kimberly.
Belinda Sherman Heterosexual memberof Memberof GeographyClub
Geography Club, African
American. ‘Bubbly’personality.
Ramone, Nate, Nolan, Jocks, friends ofKevin Land.Live Not members
Jarred Gasner in ‘the land ofthepopular’.
witnesses much to her disgust. Min spurns Russell for his defection and homophobia.
WhenBriansurprisinglytakestheheatoffRussellbydeclaring(falsely)thathe’sthegay
student,Russellcomestorealizethetruemeaningoffriendshipandmoralintegrity.He
must break up with Kevin, despite his desires. Finally, Russell and the rest of
Geography Club come out publicly to form the Goodkind High Gay-Straight-Bisexual
Alliance. The book ends abruptly there, and we do not know how the ‘outed’ club is
received at the school.
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AgeographerreadsGeographyClub
Metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and metalepsis
While critics have declared Geography Club a particularly apposite story of
adolescent alienation, and the author has characterized it as a morality tale,16 I
read the text as an example of the complex ways in which closet space is always
simultaneously discursive and material, with each of these dimensions depending
upon, and working through, the other. Here I extend my own previous work on the
closet as a spatial metaphor for the denial, concealment and erasure of queer lives
and experience. As a spatial structure of heteronormativity, the closet can be a fixed
site of oppression (cid:2) yet it can also be a site of resistance and creativity. Working
through that point, however, left my own scholarly renderings of the closet rather
static and fixed in my haste to materialize it,17 as several insightful critics correctly
noted.18 Indeed, this fluidity has long been underscored by the more literary-
theoretic approaches in textual analyses of the closet. Sedgwick’s theorization, in
particular, exemplifies such duality, yet at the expense of spatiality.19 Thus, building
on their insights, and those of others, I want to suggest that further spatializing the
literary concepts around metaphor (namely, metonym, synecdoche and metalepsis)
provides a helpful way forward. They are signifiers that capture and represent the
multiple and often paradoxical spatialities of the closet, yet they do so in ways that
appreciate simultaneously the fixity and the fluidity of the closet, without negating its
materiality.
If metaphor is the substitution of meaning based on an implied comparison of one
thing with another, metonymy is allusion based on displacement and spatial (inter
alia) associations. Translated from Greek, ‘metonym’ literally means ‘beyond (or
after) the name’. It describes a linguistic situation where a name is used for
something with which it is somehow culturally or spatially associated.20 Common
examples would be, ‘The White House said today...’ or ‘The pen is mightier than
the sword’. In the former, a physical structure displaces politicians and their
spokespeople. In the latter, pen displaces written communication and rhetorical
argumentation, while the sword commonly displaces the military, or physical force.
It is these associations between a physical structure and a political administration
that is transferred in metonymic rhetoric and cognition. Furthermore, this transferred
association may not necessarily be crucial to the meaning itself. Strict definitions
of the term posit that whereas understanding is the central function of metaphor,
metonymy has an allusive or referential quality.21 Rather than working on points
of similarity (as metaphor does), metonym works on contiguity or proximity. The
literal translation ‘beyond the name’, of course, belies the spatial rhetoric
ubiquitously used to explicate the term. Critics agree that metonyms transfer
meaning by displacement rather than condensation, as in the case of metaphor.
And that displacement is based on ‘context’ rather than the structure of meaning.22
Context can comprise any logical sequence or cultural relationship between signs.23
Yet often these relations are unmistakably spatial, as in the more specific cases of a
synecdoche or metalepsis.
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Linguists have parsed out types of metonymy that are useful in specifying the
spatial dynamics of such rhetorical displacements. ‘Synecdoche’ is a narrower, more
precise description of metonymy where a part of something being signified textually
displaces a whole (or sometimes vice versa), as in the command, ‘All hands on
deck!’ where ‘hands’ refers to the parts of the body of labouring sailors. With
synecdoche, there is often the intent of communicating that this piece or portion is
the most important piece of the phenomena being described in the context of the
author’s narrative. Thus there are many facets and dimensions to being a sailor on a
ship, but this call suggests that physical labour should be expected if this command
is given.
Metalepsis is still another dimension of metonymy. It is where there is considerable
distanceorremotenessbetweentheelementsinametonymiccouplet,orwherecause
is displaced by effect (or vice versa). A US example is ‘He’s such a leadfoot’. To
comprehend this metonym we would travel a great imaginative distance between the
element lead, its weightiness, the impossibility of a part of the body made from an
element, the force of lead on a gas pedal, and the consequent effect of accelerated
speed of a car. Such protracted travels in comprehension of this expression are what
‘metalepsis’signifies.Butthe‘distance’canalsobespatial.Forexample,theexpression
‘Theworldisyouroyster’juxtaposesmicro-andglobalscales,materialopportunityand
fortune with harvest and appetite.
We can think of contiguity and displacement in terms of locational theory based in
Euclidean space. A place that is closeting, since it encloses as it hides, suggests an
outside, or ‘elsewhere’, on a map that is not so concealing or confining. Perhaps it is
closeby,perhapsitisfaraway.WhatIfindinterestingwithclosetmetonymy,however,
is that spatial scale is often the context or spatial contiguity or the sequence through
which signification operates. Here the framing is not based so much on location
as on situation. The closet is situated in some broader scalar context (or vice versa).
Spatial scales are social constructions that frame either the object under analysis or
the domain of the object itself. These framings are often so tacit as to go unnoticed
by interlocutors. Still, they are politically potent for their epistemological and
ontologicalpowers.24Scalemetonymshavegarnereddisparateyetincreasingattention
in geography and cultural studies, and they are typically framed along a local(cid:2)
global axis of displacement.25 In the closet metaphor, for example, the closet is
metonymicallydemarcatedfromtheworldinwhichitislocated. Asasynecdoche,the
closetisapartoftheworldthatoftenstandsforaworldinitself.Thustheclosetisoften
displaced by a sense of ‘worldliness’ within it. As metalepsis, the closet signifies the
great span of scalar distance between a small, highly localized place like a closet
and the widest possible domain of human existence: the world itself. Through
synecdoche and metalepsis, the presumption is that the interlocutors will share an
understanding of both the place and situation of the event. In other words, they can
interpret the nominal, absolute or relative location, but also the cultural and social
saliency of that location.
Recognizingthescalarityoftheclosetmetonymisfurtheredwithtwocurrentinsights
from feminist and queer geographies, which show us what is at stake in recognizing
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metonymy around the closet. First, from feminist geography, there has been an
argument for paying close attention to the political possibilities where public and
private spheres are confounding one another. Staeheli, for example, notes that these
transgressive possibilities emerge where ‘private’ actions occur through public spaces,
or vice versa.26 This spatial confounding of public and private shows the utility of
treating space as a performative. From queer geography there have been urgent calls
formodesofrepresentationthatevokethefluidity,simultaneityandprocessualnature
of identity(cid:2)space relations. For instance, several geographers have astutely identified
transnational queer experiences as identity(cid:2)space relations that are difficult to
reconcile with a fixed and static representation of ‘the closet’.27 This point is similar
toDoreenMassey’srecentcritiquesofscaleingeographythatareakintoRussiandolls,
eachsmallerversionfittingwhollyinalargeronearoundit.28Likewise,ifweacceptthe
aphorismthat‘comingoutisacontinualprocess’,staticspatialrenderingsofthecloset
are at odds with the ways that the closet is performed throughout the life course.
Knopp in particular argues compellingly for a more processual and flexible sensitivity
in the sexuality and space literature. He calls for queer geographers to study with a
‘topological imagination’:
A topological imagination focuses on connections, flows, simultaneity, situatedness, contingency, and
‘becoming’ratherthanonfixedspaces,surfaces,ordimensionsontowhichgridsandotherformsoflogical
orderaresuperimposed.29
We can thus demarcate closets in space, and note carefully their fixity; but we
cannot just do that. We must also take care to note how those closets are
metonymically (cid:2) but still materially (cid:2) situated in worlds, and conversely, how
worlds are contained in (and thus displace) closet spaces. Rather than being a mere
inert stage for action, this topology is metaleptically constitutive of closet space.
Coming out of the closet and staying in it can be spatial processes of movement and
fixity, but they may also involve a confounding of public and private spheres. They
are not singular, fixed or absolute, but rather are multiple, relative and recurrent
moves. This reading captures a sense of movement and motility not only within but
between closets and worlds in the course of human life. Moreover, it does so
without relinquishing the simple yet powerful point that so motivated me in my
earlier work: sometimes material closet spaces do work in simple, direct and brutal
ways.30 Foregrounding the power of metaphoric and metonymic representation
around ‘the closet’, I argue, gets us some way towards further dissolving the
material/metaphorical dualism. Furthermore, it spatializes the closet in ways that are
sensitive to both fixity and fluidity.
The geographies
Spatiallanguageinthetext
Spatial metaphors and references are particularly common in the English language,
since they cardinally describe a sense of situatedness, between or within events,
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contexts, and social structures. Since location is ultimately always relative (either to
some culturally agreed-upon but ultimately arbitrary coordinate system or to some
other location), spatial metaphors and references can convey the relational sense of
social relations (class, gender, sexuality, ‘race’, etc.) and the identities that pole them.
Thustheygroundabstractorineluctablepsychologiesandsocialrelationsbyrecasting
them in terms of proprioception and corporeality.
So it should be no surprise that a book about adolescent sexuality and morality is
saturated with spatial metaphors and references, large and small. Consider the names
of the main characters. Russell Middlebrook’s name suggests he’s in the middle of a
flowing stream. He can move with it or against it, but he is unlikely to stay where he
is. He is fording a turbulent environment. His name is a metaphor for the gay boy
trying to get through the emotional and developmental turbulences of adolescence (cid:2)
especially fraught given his gay desire. By contrast, Kevin Land is coded as almost
inert,fixedandimmovable.Asapopularjock,Kevinisunwillingtoexposehimselfby
standing up for Russell. Indeed, he ignores him and even joins in on some of the
teasing of his own boyfriend in the cafeteria, lest he be exposed as queer and thus
lose his status and popularity. Even the name of the school, ‘Goodkind High’, seems
like an ironic appellation made by adults who have little sense or worry about the
ways the high school is not a good place. It is rigidly hierarchical, and brutally
torturous for outcasts, nerds and nonconformists. All students feel this pressure: from
popularKevintonerdyintellectualRussellandhisbestfriend,Min,right‘down’tothe
outcast Brian Bund.31 Some of the most abject scenes in the book deal with the
teasingandharassmentBrianmust sufferforhisveryexistenceinanenvironmentthat
is neither good nor kind. Brian is constantly physically assaulted and humiliated. In
the cafeteria, he has food thrown at him. He is publicly harassed and ridiculed. He is
forced to wear lipstick, and a bra over his clothes, in one particularly disturbing
cafeteria scene. For Brian Bund (and to a lesser extent his peers) this high school is
not the good kind.
Tropesoflandscapeandterritorydescribetherigidsocialhierarchiesinhighschool.
Exile from the world is how Russell describes his option of choosing Min (and
Geography Club) versus going along with the jock clique in teasing Brian
Bund:
...welltheLandofthePopularwasprettymuchparadise.I’donlybeeninparadisefortwodays,andIsure
ashellwasn’treadytogobackhomejustyet.32
Even more evocative of a world, at the climax of the book, when the entire school
suspects that Russell is the mythical gay student at Goodkind High and Min is
angry with him because he would not let Brian into the club, he offers us this
itinerary:
OverthepastfewweeksI’dbeenexploringtheLandofthePopular,andtheLandscapeofLove,butthey
weren’ttheonlytwoplacesI’dvisited.I’dcoveredthewholeterrainofatypicalhighschool.I’dgonefrom
theBorderlandsofRespectability,totheLandofthePopular,andnowtoOutcastIsland,alsoknownas
Brian’slunchtable.I’dmadethecompletecircuit.33
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Hartinger himself has stated that he deliberately used ‘geography’ as a metaphor for a
complex emotional situation adolescences typically experience in high school. As he
explained to a reviewer:
Ididintendfor[GeographyClub’smembers]tolearnabouta‘geography’ofsorts (cid:2) specifically,therigid
socialterrainofmostAmericanhighschools.Iknewthishadtobedonewithalighttouch,becauseIhate
heavy-handedmetaphors.Frankly,I’mnotsureIsucceeded (cid:2) butIdefinitelydidtry!34
And in a press interview Hartinger notes that he deliberately left the city in which
Geography Club is situated unnamed because he wanted the reader to focus on the
‘emotional geographies that are universal’.35
Thus Geography Club is a book replete with spatial metaphors and references that
perform a typical cardinal function in language. They are used in ways that link
psychologicalstatesofmindandbeingwithphysicallocation,situationandmovement.
They allude to the psychology and trajectory of main characters and to the socially
hierarchical geography of American high-school culture. Here Hartinger uses material
geography as a metaphor for emotional geography. We can appreciate the materiality
ofthecloset,andespeciallyitsmetonymicdimensions.ItistothatdiscussionthatInow
turn.
Materializingthemetaphor:closetspace
The closet is most clearly materialized in Geography Club itself, where privately
orientedactionoccursinpublicspace.Performatively claimingone’squeernessbrings
theprivateselfintothepublicsphere.36GeographyClubislocatedintheclassroomof
a social studies teacher. The teacher, Mr Kephart, is described as ‘one of the most
uninvolved teachers at the school!’37 He is someone who does not pay close attention
tostudentgoings-on,andsotheclubfeelsthathisterritorialityoverhisownclassroom
willbetheweakestandallowthemthegreatestprivacycomparedtootherteachersand
their rooms. He never attends the meetings, so Geography Club members have the
roomalltothemselves,outsideadultsurveillance.Theclassroomisneverdescribedin
greatdetail(thoughwedoknowthere’saposterofJuliusCaesaronthewall),38sowe
are left with a fairly ordinary and stereotypical image of the space: a room with a
chalkboard, a teacher’s desk, and several student desks. Perhaps it is precisely this
quotidian geography that helps the room spatialize a closeting homophobia and
heteronormativity. It, too, must pass for straight space. And it is only through
territoriality that Geography Club can queer this space, by making it privately a
sanctuary.Kevinnotesthisqualityofclosetspacebymarkingitsboundariesexplicitly:
‘Whatever anyone says in this classroom stays in this classroom. No talking about the
club with anyone outside.’39 It is a self-enclosed space in a broader spatial setting of
surveillance.
The cover of the book perfectly illustrates this space as a material geography of the
closet(Figure1).Hereweseeaninstitutionalbluedoorwithamesh-glasswindow.The
club’s name has been handwritten on a piece of copy paper in magic marker and
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FIGURE 1 The closet as material space. (Jacket design from Geography Club, reproduced by
permission ofHarperCollins.)
attachedwithtornmaskingtapetothedarkdoor,suggestingtheroomisnotdedicated
to the group per se. It is a space that is only queer temporarily. A cute teenage boy
staresexpressionlesslyfromtheothersideofthedoor’swire-meshwindow(thuseven
glasshasabarrierbetweenclosetandworld),butwedonotseehiswholeface,justhis
eyes and the top of his head. The tips of his right hand touch the frame of the glass,
suggestingasenseofconfinement.Behindhim,theinstitutionalfluorescentlightslend
an eerie glow to the dark classroom. We see empty chairs and bookcases behind the
figure. It is not a warm or inviting or sexual space. It is a cold, generic public high-
school classroom. The space of the classroom is closet space materially in the text.
Geography Club’s classroom materializes the interiority of the closet. It is a private
space of emotional, though not physical, intimacy. It is a zone of secrecy, but also of
safety, creativity and nurturing.
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