Queer Aging in North American Fiction PDF
Preview Queer Aging in North American Fiction
linda m. hess Queer Aging in North American Fiction Queer Aging in North American Fiction Linda M. Hess Queer Aging in North American Fiction Linda M. Hess Goethe University Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany ISBN 978-3-030-03465-8 ISBN 978-3-030-03466-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03466-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018961412 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: MirageC/Getty Cover design: Fatima Jamadar This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To my mother A cknowledgments This monograph began a number of years ago as a PhD project at the University of Münster (Germany). There are many people to whom I owe much gratitude for their contributions to its successful completion, who freely offered support, feedback, time, and encouragement over the years, and I would like to thank them wholeheartedly. I thank first of all my PhD advisor Katja Sarkowsky, for her sincere commitment to my project, her steady support through its different stages, and her valuable advice and insightful feedback at all critical junctures. I am grateful to my second advi- sor, Rai Peterson from Ball State University, for her keen support and encour- agement, as well as to my colleagues in Augsburg, Münster, and Frankfurt, not to forget those I met through the Postgraduate Forum of the German Association of American Studies. They have generously read and discussed with me various chapters of this project, and many have become friends as much as colleagues. I would like to mention particularly Ela Baraniecka, Ina Batzke, Danyela Demir, Eric Erbacher, Diana Gollnest, Caroline Kögler, Corinna Lenhardt, Nicole Lindenberg, Astrid Magiera, Anna Rapp, Jesper Reddig, Judith Rauscher, Senta Sanders, Nele Sawallisch, Anna Thiemann, and Chris Wahlig, whose support and enthusiasm over the years have played an enormous role in keeping me going. I am grateful to Susanne Opfermann, who introduced me to aging studies, to Thom Fitzgerald, who provided me with access to his film Cloudburst when it had not yet arrived in Germany, and to my colleagues from Graz, Ulla Kriebernegg and Roberta Maierhofer, who generously shared their knowledge in the field of aging studies early on in my project. I am thankful for Mabel Keßler’s help in preparing the index, the encouraging and helpful suggestions of the anonymous readers, and vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS the support from the excellent editorial team at Palgrave Macmillan. My special thanks go to Jasper Kunstreich, Clara Seipel, and my family (Hess and Hilgenstock) who have accompanied me in all my endeavors from the beginning. And last, but certainly not least, I thank Mark Brown for sticking with me and my project all this time, and for never ceasing to offer his time, his patience, and his love. Parts of Chap. 8, “New Stories About Gay Aging: Mike Mills’s Beginners (2010)” have previously been published as “Portrait of the Father as a Gay Man: A New Story About Gay Aging in Mike Mills’s Beginners” in the Journal of the Midwestern Modern Language Association and are r epublished here with permission. c ontents 1 Introduction: Queer Aging and the Significance of Representation 1 A Conspicuous Absence 1 Locating Queer Aging 7 Core Themes 12 Overview of Chapters 21 References 25 Part I The Confines of Straight Time 31 2 The Older Lesbian as Predator: Dorothy Baker’s Trio: A Novel (1943) 33 Lesbian Visibility in the First Half of the Twentieth Century 33 Age Relations: The Older Predator Versus the Younger Victim 38 The Power of the Heteronormative Timeline 42 Chrononormativity’s Violence 44 References 48 3 The Menace of Gay Aging: James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956) 51 The Cultural Climate of the Cold War Era 51 American Nationality and/as Compulsory Heterosexual Masculinity 57 ix x CONTENTS The Stereotypical Figure of the Aging Gay Man 62 The Reader’s Critical Perspective 67 References 71 Part II In an Era of Liberations 75 4 Lesbian-Feminist Aging: June Arnold’s Sister Gin (1975) 77 The Influence of (Lesbian) Feminism 77 Menopause as a New Beginning 82 Defying Stereotypes of Asexuality 84 Anger as Politics 88 References 95 5 Gay Times in NYC: Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance (1978) 99 In the Wake of the Stonewall Riots 99 The Economy of the Body 103 Failing the Heteronormative Future 106 The Margins of the Cultural Screen 113 References 118 Part III Transitions of the 1990s 121 6 Gay Aging After AIDS: Andrew Holleran’s The Beauty of Men (1996) 123 The Impact of the AIDS Crisis 123 Age Anxiety in the Age of AIDS 128 Trajectories and Spaces of Decline 133 Living in Limbo: Lark’s Queer Temporality 137 References 144 7 Visible Old Lesbians: Suzette Mayr’s The Widows (1998) 147 Lesbian Hypervisibility and Postmodern Canadian Literature 147 Bearing a New Self 152 Desire and the Failures of the Aging Body 157 The Widow as (Ghosted) Lesbian 162 References 169 CONTENTS xi Part IV Queer Aging in the Young Twenty- First Century 173 8 New Stories About Gay Aging: Mike Mills’s Beginners (2010) 175 Into the Twenty-First Century 175 Constructing Identity Through Narrative 181 The Framework of History 185 Becoming Real 190 References 196 9 Lesbian Aging Hits the Road: Thom Fitzgerald’s Cloudburst (2011) 199 Twenty-First-Century Lesbian Road Movie 199 A Salty Old Woman 204 Physical Decline, Ageism, and Caregiving 206 Marriage Equality and Kinship Systems 211 References 220 Part V Queer Aging Now 223 10 Conclusion: Ask What Queer Aging Can Do for You 225 Tracing a History 225 The Current Moment of Queer Aging in North American Fiction 227 The Future (of Queer Aging) Is Now 229 References 231 Index 233
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