Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies

Supervisor

Roulston, Chris

Abstract

This thesis explores queer art and aesthetics as rich in potential for the affects of queer joy and queer belonging. In addition to existing in a world that punishes deviance from systemic norms, marginalized groups are expected to be the leaders of systemic deconstruction. Moreover, I argue that the constraints of chrononormativity uniquely affect queer folks. These burdens are heavy. How, then, do queers find time for laughter? How do they create the opportunity to connect without the immediate pressure of socio-political reformation? When reformation is critical for survival, how do queer folks make time for joy? Research often prioritizes narratives of queer victimization, and although important, I contend that queer existence is joyful. Given the frequency with which art and aesthetics feature as conduits of affect, I explore four contemporary artworks as sites where queer joy and queer belonging occur. Through encounters with art, we may become untethered from the fast-paced temporality of capitalism and other systems of oppression. The theoretical frameworks of queer phenomenology, queer temporality, and affect theory undergird my perspective.

I provide analyses of a creative nonfiction essay entitled Time is the Thing a Body Moves Through by teacher, artist, and writer T Fleischmann (2019); my experience of the exhibition Camp: Notes on Fashion (2019) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a live performance by queercore band Hunx and His Punx; and finally I document the promising glimmers of queer stick-and-poke tattooing. Through these artworks, I demonstrate how queer aesthetics can forge an alternative relationship to temporality. This thesis, therefore, shows how queers have been using art to create their own temporal worlds that foster joy and belonging.

Summary for Lay Audience

This thesis explores queer art as having the capacity to create queer joy and queer belonging. I suggest that queer folks are burdened by the constraints of an oppressive world. Additionally, there is an expectation that oppressed groups ought to lead social change and activist efforts. During a time when oppression and hatred seem to be on the rise, social change is necessary for survival. How, then, do queers find time for laughter? Or for the opportunity to connect and relate without the immediate pressure of making the world a better place? How do queer folks make time for queer joy?

By attending to time and temporality, I suggest that the expectations of the fast-paced nature of capitalism and other oppressive systems constrain our bodies. Therefore, I argue for the possibility of queer art to foster an embodied reprieve from these constraints: feelings which I call queer belonging and queer joy. Queer aesthetics can demonstrate alternative temporal values outside of the speed of capitalism. To illustrate this, I examine four contemporary artworks as sites where queer joy and queer belonging occur. These works include: a creative nonfiction essay entitled Time is the Thing a Body Moves Through, by T Fleischmann (2019); an exhibition from the Metropolitan Museum of Art called Camp: Notes on Fashion (2019); an underground queercore concert performed by Hunx and His Punx; and finally, the amateur practice of queer stick-and-poke, or non-machine tattooing. Through analysis of these artworks, this thesis shows how queers have been using art to create their own worlds that foster joy and belonging.

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