METHOD

a paper, incorporating autobiography and research

MY RESEARCH QUESTION/S

How do our expectations or needs of texts affect our perceptions of them? What can this tell us about our understandings of ourselves, and of self?

THIS PROJECT MATTERS TO ME AND MAYBE OTHERS BECAUSE:

I have had this Pollyanna notion that if only LGBTQ folks knew about all the interesting queer art with queer political ideas exists, and engaged with it, they’d embrace this work and receive the messages it contained; and they’d simultaneously let go of some of the more mainstream homonormative, class consciousness work that is widely lauded as ‘queer canon’. But I’ve been disavowed of this by, say, being in a book club with other gay men and witnessing them blithely dismiss work that challenged them or didn’t fit their expectations. What stood between them and deeper engagement? What did they miss, and what did they absorb?

I love a lot of art that is relatively under the radar, art that has helped me to formulate my sense of self. I don’t believe that art, or the kind of art I love, does or must do or should do this for everybody. But I am interested in using art, and the responses to it, to explore how we come to our senses of self.

MY KEY TEXTS

• The Inheritance (play) written by Matthew Lopez, premiered in London 2018

• Adam (film) directed by Rhys Ernst, released 2019

• Johnny Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger? (“non-memoir”) by Brontez Purnell, published 2017

• reviews of these works, interviews with their creators

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS

• Close reading

• Reader-response theory/new criticism: artists can control meaning and affective response to a great extent, but not fully; their work will be met by audiences who bring their own meanings, perspectives, experiences, there is no neutral audience, but there are ways to conscientiously tell us that in the instance of this world, Father signifies ____, water signifies __________. It can tell us where to be confused and where to be focused or certain.
  • Positive example: Fleabag S2 – Hot Priest
  • Negative example: ?

Queer of color theory – Munoz’s theory of disidentification

MY POSITION AS RESEARCHER

I am/was part of the audience for these works – I’m a queer person who enjoys reading, movies, theater; they crossed my line of vision (ads, friend recommendations). I bought the book, purchased tickets to the play, and streamed the film. 

My work as a dramaturg alongside artists as they generate new material means that I put a lot of faith in artistic intent, and tend to want to hear out someone’s ideas fully rather than dismissing anyone hastily. My work alongside producing organizations means that I’m paying attention to the kinds of stories getting written, selected, celebrated, ignored, dismissed.