Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Queer American Literature
- The Cambridge History of Queer American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Synchronic Histories of American Sexuality
- Part II Diachronic Histories of American Sexuality
- Queer Genre
- Race and the Politics of Queer and Trans Representation
- Space and the Regional Imaginary of Queer Literature
- 33 Queer Southern Literature and the Dirty South
- 34 Queer DiaspoRican Circuits
- 35 “where sadness makes sense”
- 36 Queer New England Regionalism
- 37 Queer Beginnings at the End of the Frontier
- 38 Queer American Literature in the World
- Part III Queer Methods
- Index
35 - “where sadness makes sense”
The Queer Poetics of the Midwest Terrain
from Space and the Regional Imaginary of Queer Literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 May 2024
- The Cambridge History of Queer American Literature
- The Cambridge History of Queer American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Synchronic Histories of American Sexuality
- Part II Diachronic Histories of American Sexuality
- Queer Genre
- Race and the Politics of Queer and Trans Representation
- Space and the Regional Imaginary of Queer Literature
- 33 Queer Southern Literature and the Dirty South
- 34 Queer DiaspoRican Circuits
- 35 “where sadness makes sense”
- 36 Queer New England Regionalism
- 37 Queer Beginnings at the End of the Frontier
- 38 Queer American Literature in the World
- Part III Queer Methods
- Index
Summary
This essay examines the work of several poets (including Langston Hughes, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Christopher Leland, Julie Gard, Heiu Minh Nguyen, Danez Smith, and Rane Arroyo) who engage the Midwest as a resonant source for writing about a host of topics pertaining to queer self-awareness, belonging, and memory. Not unlike the work of recent scholars aiming to dislodge the rural in particular and the Midwest more broadly as a site of unbridled anti-LGBT sentiment and politics, the essay illustrates how these poets refuse essentialist beliefs about the Midwest to instead register the myriad queer histories, cultures, and experiences stemming from America’s heartland. Furthermore, as it considers the inextricable bond between “the Midwest” and “the rural,” the essay illustrates how the urban Midwest additionally requires consideration for the way that cities like Minneapolis, Detroit, and Chicago are indeed part and parcel of the heartland yet frequently eclipsed by the customary association of gay liberation with major metropolitan coastal cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of Queer American Literature , pp. 644 - 657Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024