Lost Causes: Narrative, Etiology, and Queer Theory

249 Pages·2014·2.269 MB·English

by  Valerie Rohy

LOST CAUSES

LOST CAUSES
Narrative, Etiology, and Queer Theory
Valerie Rohy
1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
© Oxford University Press 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the
appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rohy, Valerie.
Lost causes : narrative, etiology, and queer theory / Valerie Rohy.
p. cm.
ISBN 978–0–19–934019–4 (hardback) — ISBN 978–0–19–934020–0 (paper) —
ISBN 978–0–19–934021–7 (ebook) 1.  American literature—History and criticism.
2.  English literature—History and criticism. 3.  Homosexuality in literature. 4.  Queer theory.
5.  Narration (Rhetoric)—Social aspects. 6.  Homosexuality and literature.
7.  Gender identity in literature. I.  Title.
PS169.H65R64 2015
809’.93352664—dc23
2014005144
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
1. Introduction: Cause and Effect 1
2. On Homosexual Reproduction 22
3. Strange Influence: The Picture of Dorian Gray 56
4. Return from the Future: James Weldon Johnson’s
Autobiography 80
5. Desire and the Scene of Reading: The Well
of Loneliness 104
6. The Future in Ruins: Borrowed Time 138
7. Contingency for Beginners: The Night Watch 163
8. Conclusion: Multiply and Divide 185
Notes 193
Index 231

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is a privilege to thank the many people who directly or indi-
rectly aided my work on this book. I am grateful to all those who
made it possible for me to present parts of the project in earlier
forms: they include Alfred Bendixen, Abby Goode, Dominique
Grisard, Judith Haber, Richard Kaye, Susan Sniader Lanser,
E. L. McCallum, Vincent Pecora, Brian Richardson, Ellen Rooney,
Avery Slater, Mikko Tuhkanen, Robyn Warhol, Elizabeth Weed, and
Ika Willis. Others near and far offered intellectual community and
invaluable comments; they include Judith Brown, Lee Edelman,
Annamaria Formichella Elsden, Jane Gallop, Joe Litvak, Madhavi
Menon, Michael Moon, Paul Morrison, Jonathan Mulrooney, and
Peggy Phelan. I am grateful to Alison Bechdel for her vital intelli-
gence and terrific kindness, and to Matt Bell for his critical eye and
eloquent correspondence. The exceptional University of Vermont
students with whom I discussed these texts compelled me to think
about them in new ways, and colleagues at UVM encouraged
me as well. In particular, I have profited from conversations with
Sarah Alexander, Dot Brauer, Paul Deslandes, Loka Losambe, Todd
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
McGowan, Hilary Neroni, Jackie Weinstock, and especially Liz
Fenton, the first and most generous reader of these chapters. Though
they are unlikely to read this book, others very much sustained its
writing. Most of all I thank John Aberdeen, Elliott McEldowney and
Liam Nolan, Kristen Johanson and Sean Field, Richard Wells and
Kathleen Bailey, Mark Rubin, Michael Faletra and Annie Lighthart,
and my family.
It has been a great pleasure to work with Brendan O’Neill at
Oxford University Press; this project has gained much from his
guidance and from the comments of the press’s three anonymous
readers. Balasubramanian Shanmugasundram skillfully supervised
the book’s production. UVM’s College of Arts and Sciences sup-
ported this work with a Dean’s Lecture Award in 2012 and sabbati-
cal time in 2009 and 2010. A version of Chapter 2 was previously
published in differences 23.1 (2012), and an earlier form of “Return
from the Future: James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography” appeared
in Queer Times, Queer Becomings, edited by E. L. McCallum and
Mikko Tuhkanen (New York: State University of New York Press,
2011). I thank them for permission to reprint these materials here.
viii
LOST CAUSES