Thesis Format
Integrated Article
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Art and Visual Culture
Supervisor
C. Cody Barteet
Abstract
This dissertation explores how pastoral spaces represented in early modern art and literature are reconfigured and mobilized in constructions of nature in contemporary queer cinema. Specifically, how these cinematically reimagined spaces enable negotiations of queer identities that have been marginalized by the patriarchal order. I explore the critical potential of the pastoral through Michel Foucault’s foundational notion of the heterotopia, which recognizes the productive nature of these spaces and the essential role they perform in both constructing and representing queer identities. I interpret the heterotopia as a site of alternate order and knowledge connected to and separate from hegemonic or other spaces of conformity. While the early modern pastoral —a term that traditionally designates poetry and art that offers an idealized portrayal of the life of shepherds and their rural surroundings – is presented as an idealized un/real space, it is not entirely removed from or impervious to the difficulties of daily life. I treat the pastoral as a heterotopia to provide a new model for considering early modern landscapes as malleable and capable of negotiating social constructs and civic value. By treating representations of natural sites as heterotopic, I seek to bridge queer cinema and early modern pastoral imagery to create a lineage of queer spatialities and bring attention to overlooked connections between early modern art and contemporary cinema.
Summary for Lay Audience
This dissertation explores how pastoral spaces represented in early modern art and literature are reconfigured and mobilized in constructions of nature in contemporary queer cinema. Specifically, how these cinematically reimagined spaces enable negotiations of queer identities that have been marginalized by the patriarchal order. I explore the critical potential of the pastoral through Michel Foucault’s foundational notion of the heterotopia, which recognizes the productive nature of these spaces and the essential role they perform in both constructing and representing queer identities. Foucault’s “Of Other Spaces” defines heterotopias as real places that are counter-sites, a sort of effectively realized utopia in which the other spaces are represented, contested and inverted. These counter-sites include holidays, gardens, and prisons that exist outside the ordinary and disrupt time and space.
While the early modern pastoral —a term that traditionally designates poetry and art that offers an idealized portrayal of the life of shepherds and their rural surroundings – is presented as an idealized un/real space, it is not entirely removed from or impervious to the difficulties of daily life. I treat the pastoral as a heterotopia to provide a new model for considering early modern landscapes as capable of negotiating social constructs and civic value. Similarly, heterotopic pastoral sites in films disturb monotony, present the inverse of society, and subvert signification. My dissertation consists of a theoretical introduction and four articles on pastoral landscapes in queer cinema and the influence of early modern art: “Almost Heaven: Call Me by Your Name (2017) as a Queer Earthly Paradise,” “Refashioning Renaissance Pastoral Landscape in Brokeback Mountain (2005),” “Dis/Locating Desires and Art in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019),” and “Queer (Self-) Love in American Gods (2017–2021): Desert, Garden, and Hotel.” These case studies establish how heterotopias function as spaces of alternate order that are connected to, yet separate from, hegemonic spaces of conformity; as such, they are critical sites of resistance. I seek to bridge queer cinema and Renaissance pastoral imagery to create a lineage of queer spatialities and bring attention to overlooked connections between early modern art and contemporary cinema.
While the early modern pastoral —a term that traditionally designates poetry and art that offers an idealized portrayal of the life of shepherds and their rural surroundings – is presented as an idealized un/real space, it is not entirely removed from or impervious to the difficulties of daily life. I treat the pastoral as a heterotopia to provide a new model for considering early modern landscapes as malleable and capable of negotiating social constructs and civic value. Similarly, heterotopic pastoral sites in films disturb monotony, present the inverse of society, and subvert signification as they are the place of difference. These sites are suggestive of erotic and creative desires fulfilled in queer films. By treating representations of natural sites as heterotopic, I seek to bridge queer cinema and Renaissance pastoral imagery to create a lineage of queer spatialities and bring attention to overlooked connections between early modern art and contemporary cinema.
Recommended Citation
Kazi, Iraboty, "Beautiful People in Beautiful Places: Pastoral Landscapes as Heterotopias in Early Modern Art and Queer Cinema" (2025). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 10709.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/10709
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Queer Studies Commons, Renaissance Studies Commons, Television Commons, Visual Studies Commons
