Coming Out of the Closet while Coming-of-Age: The Construction of Gay Male Sexuality in Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story
Published in 1982, Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story is
a bildungsroman of a young boy remembering his past and sexual
initiation. While the novel traces the narrator’s experiences of growing
into a young man, it also includes glimpses of gay men’s experiences
in the U.S during the mid-20th century. This article attempts to analyze
the character’s journey of sexual discovery as part of his identity
construction and details how this development of sexuality differs
from the same-sex sexualities in the bildungsroman tradition. During
his coming of age and self-growth process, the character’s sexual
discovery is affected by the presence of the father figure. Due to this
figure, the protagonist becomes attracted to his first love, Kevin. In
light of the theoretical framework on the bildungsroman, gay sexuality,
masculinity, and the oedipal triangle, this article examines the way the
main character’s discovery of his attraction to Kevin is shaped by his
relationship to his father. And this leads to the discovery of both himself
and his sexuality during the process of transitioning from boyhood to
gay manhood, where his sexuality becomes a part of his identity.
Keywords:
Edmund White, bildungsroman, gender, sexuality, masculinity, queer literature, Edmund White, bildungsroman, gender, sexuality, masculinity queer literature,
___
- Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, 1988, pp. 519–531. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/ stable/3207893. Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.
- Edwards, Tim. Erotics and Politics: Gay Male Sexuality, Masculinity and Feminism. Routledge, 1994.
- Girard, René, “‘Triangular’ Desire” in Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure, NY: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1976, 1-17.
- Halperin, David M. How to Be Gay. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012.
- Hollinghurst, Alan. “Alan Hollinghurst on Edmund White’s Gay Classic A Boy’s Own Story.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 June 2016, www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/10/ edmund-white-a-boys-own-story-rereading-gay-literature.
- Mutchler, Matt. G. “Seeking Sexual Lives: Gay Youth and Masculinity Tensions.” Gay Masculinities, edited by Peter Nardi, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2000, pp. 12–43.
- Nelson, Claudia, and Kenneth Kid. “David and Jonathan—and Saul— Revisited: Homodomestic Patterns in British Boy’s Magazine Fiction, 1880–1915.” Over the Rainbow: Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature, edited by Michelle Ann Abate, Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press, 2014, pp. 15–32.
- Purvis, Tony. “America’s ‘White’ Cultural and Sexual Dissensus: The Fictions of Edmund White.” Journal of American Studies, vol. 42, no. 2, 2008, pp. 293–316. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/ stable/40464271. Accessed 13 Feb. 2021.
- Radel, Nicholas F. “Self as Other: The Politics of Identity in the Works of Edmund White.”Queer Words, Queer Images: Communication and the Construction of Homosexuality, edited by R. Jeffrey Ringer, NYU Press, NEW YORK; LONDON, 1994, pp. 175– 192. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qfw8w.14. Accessed 12 Jan. 2021.
- Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosexual Desire. Columbia University Press, 1985.
- ---. Tendencies. Duke University Press, 1993.
- Stevens, Hugh. “Normality and Queerness in Gay Fiction.” The Cambridge Companion to Gay and Lesbian Writing, edited by Hugh Stevens Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 81–96.
- Sullivan, Nikki, and J. R. Cadwallader. A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
- Xhonneux, Lies. “The Classic Coming Out Novel: Unacknowledged Challenges to the Heterosexual Mainstream.” College Literature, vol. 39, no. 1, 2012, pp. 94–118. JSTOR, www.jstor. org/stable/23266042. Accessed 12 Jan. 2021.
- Tobin, Robert. “Bildung and Sexuality in the Age of Goethe.” The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature, edited by E L McCallum, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 254–272.
- Tribunella, Eric L, and Mikko Tuhkanen. “Childhood Studies: Children’s and Young Adult Literatures.” The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature, edited by E L McCallum, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 695–712.
- Vanita, Ruth. “The Homoerotics of Travel: People, Ideas, Genres.” The Cambridge Companion to Gay and Lesbian Writing, edited by Hugh Stevens Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 99–115.
- White, Edmund. A Boy’s Own Story. London: Picador Classic. Vol. 47. Pan Macmillan, 2016.
- ISSN: 1300-6606
- Yayın Aralığı: 2
- Başlangıç: 1995
- Yayıncı: -