Phenomenology of the Closet:Cultural, Sexual, and Textual (Dis)Orientation in Henry James's The Ambassadors
Keywords:
Henry James, Sarah Ahmed, Queer Theory, Formalism, Reader-Response Theory, DisorientationAbstract
Place can be a space for grounding, rootedness and comfort, but equally it can dislocate, dislodge and disorient a subject. Following Sarah Ahmed, I take disorientation as a particular generative term through which to interrogate queer phenomenology. I investigate, through a close reading of Henry James's The Ambassadors, how cultural, sexual and stylistic (dis)orientation can contribute to how a subject can instigate and participate in a queer space.
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