Queer Alchemy

136 Pages·2011·4.18 MB·English

by  Andrew John Buzny

QUEER ALCHEMY

QUEER ALCHEMY:
FABULOUSNESS IN GAY MALE LITERATURE AND FILM
By
ANDREW JOHN BUZNY, B.A.
A Thesis
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree
Master of Arts
McMaster University
© Copyright by Andrew John Buzny, August 2010

MASTER OF ARTS (2010) McMaster University'
(English) Hamilton, Ontario
TITLE: Queer Alchemy: Fabulousness in Gay Male Literature and Film
AUTHOR: Andrew John Buzny, B.A. (McMaster University)
SUPERVISOR: Professor Lorraine York
NUMBER OF PAGES: v, 124pp.
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ABSTRACT
This thesis prioritizes the role of the Fabulous, an underdeveloped critical
concept, in the construction of gay male literature and film. Building on Heather
Love's observation that queer communities possess a seemingly magical ability to
transform shame into pride - queer alchemy - I argue that gay males have created
a genre of fiction that draws on this alchemical power through their uses of the
Fabulous: fabulous realism. To highlight the multifarious nature of the Fabulous, I
examine Thomas Gustafson's film Were the World Mine, Tomson Highway's
novel Kiss oft he Fur Queen, and Quentin Crisp's memoir The Naked Civil
Servant.
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ACKNO~EDGEMENTS
This thesis would not have reached completion without the continuing aid
and encouragement of a number of fabulous people. I am extremely thankful to
have been blessed with such a rigorous, encouraging, compassionate supervisor,
Dr. Lorraine York, who despite my constant erratic behaviour, and disloyalty to
my original proposal has remained a strong supporter of this project: THANK
YOU! I would also like to thank my first reader, Dr. Sarah Brophy for providing
me with multiple opportunities to grow in~ellectually throughout the past year,
and during my entire tenure at McMaster University. My thanks to Dr. Melinda
Gough for agreeing to participate in this committee and for offering me a position
as her research assistant in my undergraduate degree, thereby making available
the foundations of this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Helene Strauss, Dr.
Mary Silcox, Dr. Grace Kehler, and Dr. Philippa Carter for their continual
support. For their continual assistance, I am grateful to Bianca James, Antoinette
Somo, Aurelia Gatto, and Ilona Forgo-Smith. I am especially thankful to Amanda
Montague and Eva Lane for engaging in - multiple - thesis related rants. In
addition, to all those who asked me the question that ends in "thesis" or helped in
any other way: Taryn Beukema, Sarah Bezan, Nadine Bukham, Jennifer Fisher,
Joseph Frank, Mike MacDonald, Derritt Mason, Meg Ramore, Sharlee Reimer,
Sandeep Singh, Sonya Zikic. Lastly, I would like to thank Coco and Buffy for
reminding when it was time to take a break.
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