Abstract
Water is ever changing—it moves between, it reaches out, it touches disparate continents and concepts. Through the focused application of Queer theory and gender theory to visual and textual sources, I investigate the image of water as an embodiment of and backdrop for Queer stories. I employ Dr. Kathyrn Stockton’s work on cis/trans surface and Dr. Amy Jeffery’s work on queer liminal spaces, among other sources, to analyze three Queer, ocean-centric texts: Moonlight (2018), Yanyi’s The Year of Blue Water, and Jean Genet’s Querelle. I take an intersectional approach, also considering the impact of racial and cultural histories on the role of the ocean in each text. I expect to find that, in these works, the ocean takes on a role similar to that of the established concept of liminal space; it allows for impossible contradictions—between male/female, gay/straight, surface/depth—to exist. Through this analysis, I highlight how the symbolic ocean opens avenues for LGBTQ+ people to think, dream, and explore. I flow between the three texts, using each to illustrate a new dimension of the Queer(ed) ocean. I visualize showing screencaps and micro-excerpts from these texts as well.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Queerness, Transness, Gender, Sexuality, Liminality, Ocean, Water, Literature, Film
