Document Type
Panel Presentation
Start Date
19-4-2019 10:45 AM
End Date
19-4-2019 12:00 PM
Keywords
Queer theory, British Romanticism
Biography
Upon graduation in May, I plan to continue on with my Master's degree with a concentration on British Romanticism/18th century literature. My passion is critical analysis, but I also write creative nonfiction as well.
Major
Literary Studies
Advisor for this project
Joel Peckham
Abstract
“The Power of the Gaze/Gays: A Queer Analysis of S.T. Coleridge’s Christabel” is a critical analysis of the 1816 poem. The thesis argues that Coleridge used the relationships between the characters of Geraldine and Christabel in Part One of the poem, as well as their fathers, Lord Roland de Vaux of Tryremaine and Sir Leoline, in Part Two, as outlets to express repressed homoerotic desire. There is important emphasis on the concepts of Mulvey’s male gaze, Jill Soloway’s female gaze, and a new lens—which I derived, for the sake of this project, from Soloway’s concept—the queer gaze, in relation to Coleridge’s poem. Through application of these concepts, as well as taking into consideration the differences between the original audience and the audience today, when examining the text, the research shows that there was original failure to acknowledge these homosexual presences because such acts were considered taboo by culture, and therefore repressed due to shame. Centuries later, however, readers are beginning to pick up on the homoerotic tension between the characters. In conclusion, the research states that rather the inclusion of queer presence on Coleridge’s part was intentional, or just a result of the implied reader, it is prevalent once readers are able to let themselves examine the text without being influenced by the dominant presence of the male gaze. These relationships are more than the fetishization that society has created of queer people, and this text solidifies queer identity (even in a time when it wasn’t accepted).
The Power of the Gaze/Gays: A Queer Analysis of S.T. Coleridge's Christabel
“The Power of the Gaze/Gays: A Queer Analysis of S.T. Coleridge’s Christabel” is a critical analysis of the 1816 poem. The thesis argues that Coleridge used the relationships between the characters of Geraldine and Christabel in Part One of the poem, as well as their fathers, Lord Roland de Vaux of Tryremaine and Sir Leoline, in Part Two, as outlets to express repressed homoerotic desire. There is important emphasis on the concepts of Mulvey’s male gaze, Jill Soloway’s female gaze, and a new lens—which I derived, for the sake of this project, from Soloway’s concept—the queer gaze, in relation to Coleridge’s poem. Through application of these concepts, as well as taking into consideration the differences between the original audience and the audience today, when examining the text, the research shows that there was original failure to acknowledge these homosexual presences because such acts were considered taboo by culture, and therefore repressed due to shame. Centuries later, however, readers are beginning to pick up on the homoerotic tension between the characters. In conclusion, the research states that rather the inclusion of queer presence on Coleridge’s part was intentional, or just a result of the implied reader, it is prevalent once readers are able to let themselves examine the text without being influenced by the dominant presence of the male gaze. These relationships are more than the fetishization that society has created of queer people, and this text solidifies queer identity (even in a time when it wasn’t accepted).
