Rereading Heterosexuality: Feminism, Queer Theory and Contemporary Fiction

Description

Heterosexuality in contemporary novels, re-examined using the frameworks of feminism and queer theory Drawing on feminist and queer theories of sex, gender and sexuality, this study focuses on female identities at odds with heterosexual norms. In particular, it explores narratives in which the conventional equation between heterosexuality, reproductive sexuality and female identity is questioned. - A timely exploration of the dynamic relationship between feminist and queer theory - Insightful close readings of acclaimed novels, including Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, Zoë Heller's Notes on a Scandal, A. M. Homes' The End of Alice, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Alan Warner's Morvern Callar and Sarah Waters' Affinity - Topics range from spinsterhood and intergenerational sexuality to transgender and human cloning. COVER......Page 1 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Introduction: feminism, queer theory and heterosexuality......Page 10 Part One: Revisiting the spinster......Page 32 Chapter 1 ‘Becoming my own ghost’: spinsterhood and the ‘invisibility’ of heterosexuality in Sarah Waters’ Affinity......Page 34 Chapter 2 Telling tales out of school: spinsters, scandals and intergenerational heterosexuality in Zoë Heller’s Notes on a Scandal......Page 54 Part Two: Transgressive female heterosexuality......Page 74 Chapter 3 Queering Alice, killing Lolita: feminism, queer theory and the politics of child sexuality in A. M. Homes’s The End of Alice......Page 76 Chapter 4 Unauthorised reproduction: class, pregnancy and transgressive female heterosexuality in Alan Warner’s Morvern Callar......Page 100 Part Three: Reproducing heterosexuality......Page 118 Chapter 5 ‘First one thing and then the other’: rewriting the intersexed body in Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex......Page 120 Chapter 6 Imitations of life: cloning, heterosexuality and the human in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go......Page 140 Bibliography......Page 158 Index......Page 166