Nobody Dies at the End? Exploring the Possibilities of Optimism in Gay Men's Writing in Twenty-First Century American Literature

我的研究项目将是第一个批判性地检查交叉性的文学和文化含义在21世纪的美国男同性恋者的写作。它也将是第一个在这个文学语料库中对酷儿乐观主义的可能性（和挑战）进行比较研究的作品之一。我的研究目标是为男同性恋者——尤其是来自边缘群体的男同性恋者——文学创作对美国自我认同的重要意义提供重要见解，因为美国正在努力应对人口变化、文化战争以及千禧一代作为文学生产者和消费者的突出地位。通过批判性地参与男同性恋的写作，我的研究将探索这些关键的紧张关系，并询问酷儿表达在创造一个更美好的美国中可能扮演什么角色。我将把重点放在布兰登·泰勒、王海洋、布莱恩·华盛顿和安东尼·苏等作家的作品上，因为他们在媒体和当代文学市场上的知名度很高。我还将利用拉姆达文学奖的入围名单作为档案基础，以确定过去二十年来酷儿表现策略和批评吸引力标准的变化。我的假设有三个方面。第一种假设认为，美国当代男同性恋作品仍然专注于表现与主角同性恋相关的焦虑、暴力、脆弱和家庭创伤，但与20世纪创作的作品相比，对主角的密室（Russo, 1987）和死亡（Bersani, 1987）的关注较少。其次，当代男同性恋者写作的一个重要组成部分是审视年轻男同性恋者在性取向和其他社会身份类别（如种族、阶级和文化背景）的交叉点上的生活（Crenshaw, 1989; Ahmed, 2006）。例如，泰勒的《真实生活》中的主人公因为他的非裔美国人、同性恋和南方工人阶级背景而受到歧视。小说将他在身份基础上所面临的重重困难表现得淋漓尽致。第三种假设是，在十字路口的生活既复杂又增加了“酷儿乐观主义”的可能性（Snediker, 2006; Munoz, 1999 & 2009）。为了描绘当代美国男同性恋写作的现状，并将这种写作对社会和文化的干预理论化，我的研究将解决以下问题：男同性恋主角的积极/乐观表现有什么意义？这些文献产生和细微差别交叉身份的方式的重要性是什么？交叉身份的代表是挑战还是增强了对美国未来乐观的可能性？我的论文章节将讨论以下内容在男同性恋写作中的重要性：交叉身份的本质（例如，泰勒《真实生活》中核心的非裔美国博士生）；酷儿之爱和性（例如，在加州的柬埔寨裔美国人社区里，So’s Afterparties和在华盛顿纪念堂（Washington’s Memorial）的黑人和亚裔跨种族合作）；家庭关系和紧张关系（例如，在冯广受好评的选集《地球上我们短暂地美丽》中）；以及成长小说的概念。

My research project will be one of the first to critically examine the literary and cultural implications of intersectionality in twenty-first century gay men's writing in the USA. It will also be one of the first to undertake a comparative examination of the possibilities (and challenges) of queer optimism in this literary corpus. The goal of my research is to provide crucial insight into the significance of gay men's - and in particular gay men from marginalised communities - literary production to America's self-identity as it grapples with demographic change, the culture wars, and the prominence of millennials as producers and consumers of literature. By critically engaging with gay men's writing, my research will explore these key tensions and ask what role might queer expression play in creating a better America. I will focus on the work of authors such as Brandon Taylor, Ocean Vuong, Bryan Washington and Anthony So because of their visibility in the media and in the contemporary literary marketplace. I will also use the Lambda Literary Awards shortlists as an archival base for identifying the changes in queer representational strategies and in criteria for critical appeal over the last two decades.My hypotheses are threefold. The first posits that contemporary gay men's writing in the US remains preoccupied with representing anxiety, violence, vulnerability and family trauma linked to the homosexuality of its protagonists but is less concerned with the closet (Russo, 1987) and the death (Bersani, 1987) of its protagonists than works produced in the twentieth century. Second, a significant strand of contemporary gay men's writing involves examining young gay men's lives at the intersection between sexuality and other social identity categories such as race, class and cultural background (Crenshaw, 1989; Ahmed, 2006). For example, the protagonist of Taylor's Real Life experiences discrimination because of his African-American ethnicity, his homosexuality and his working-class, Southern background. The novel brings into sharp relief the myriad difficulties he faces on the basis of his identity. The third posits that life at the intersection both complicates and enhances the possibility of 'queer optimism' (Snediker, 2006; Munoz, 1999 & 2009).To chart the status of contemporary American gay men's writing and theorise the social and cultural interventions this writing is making, my research will address the following questions:What significance does the positive/optimistic representation of gay male protagonists have?What is the importance of the ways in which this literature produces and nuances intersectionalidentities?Does the representation of intersectional identities challenge or embolden possibilities of optimism forAmerica's future?My thesis chapters will discuss the significance of the following in gay men's writing: the nature of intersectional identities (for example, that of the African American PhD student at the heart of Taylor's Real Life); queer love and sex (for instance, within California's Cambodian American community in So's Afterparties and interracial Black and Asian partnerships in Washington's Memorial); family relationships and tensions (e.g., in Vuong's acclaimed anthology On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous); and the concept of the Bildungsroman.