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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
8 pages in length. The concept of homosexuality has been an integral component of literary history; that myriad authors have employed it in both subtle and blatant fashion throughout the centuries speaks to its overwhelming presence. Marcel Proust's Sodom and Gomorrah, legendary for its gay overtones, fashions an association between the oppressive tenets of social dictate and the subcultures that pay no attention to such repression. However, the extent to which one can examine Sodom and Gomorrah from the standpoint of queer theory rests upon one's ability to understand the fundamental basis of being queer. Bibliography lists 9 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: LM1_TLCSodom.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
presence. Marcel Prousts Sodom and Gomorrah, legendary for its gay overtones, fashions an association between the oppressive tenets of social dictate and the subcultures that pay no attention to
such repression. However, the extent to which one can examine Sodom and Gomorrah from the standpoint of queer theory rests upon ones ability to understand the fundamental basis of
being queer. "For with that eccentricity of the Guermantes, who, instead of conforming to the ways of society, tended to modify them to suit their own personal habits..." (Proust
2). It is a knee-jerk reaction to immediately think of gayness when encountering the word queer, wholly ignoring its true definition of "whatever is at odds with the normal, the
legitimate, the dominant" (Halperin 62). Indeed, Prousts Sodom and Gomorrah displays an unmistakable prevalence toward queerness in this regard, however, it does so in such a way as to
make one consider which definition is most applicable: homosexuality or merely being apart from the norm. "Unlike gay identity, which, though deliberately proclaimed in an act of affirmation, is
nonetheless rooted in the positive fact of homosexual object-choice, queer identity need not be grounded in any positive truth or in any stable reality. As the very word implies,
queer does not name some natural kind or refer to some determinate object; it acquires its meaning from its oppositional relation to the norm...Queer, then, demarcates not a positivity but
a positionality vis-?-vis the normative - a positionality that is not restricted to lesbians and gay men but is in fact available to anyone who is or feels marginalized because
of his or her sexual practices..." (Halperin 62). Always in good company, Proust - who was considered a closet case "but one
...