Queer literary interpretation is a method of literary interpretation stemming from Marxism, feminism, psychoanalysis and the gay rights movement. It is an addition to literary theory in the 1980s.
Only partially based on gay, lesbian and bisexual issues, a queer literary interpretation is largely concerned with sexual identity, especially "closeted" (hidden) sexual identity. Other "closeted" aspects of works are often examined, as well.
There are opposing views of queer literary theory. One view is that sexual identity is "fixed", and may be discerned by careful study. The opposing view is that sexual identity is both fluid and socially constructed, and thus there is no "absolute" identity.
Questions that a queer literary interpretation might attempt to answer:
- What does the work tell the reader about the author's sexual identity?
- Conversely, how might the author's sexual identity affect different aspects of work?
- What doesn't the author tell the reader about the sexual identities of his or her characters? How this omission significant?
- What aspects of the work has the author silenced or closeted, in order to gain the approval of society?
A traditional work of literature can be "queered" by applying this type of interpretation.
Famous quotes containing the words queer and/or literary:
“When every Sunday afternoon
On the Green Lands I walk
And wear a coat in fashion,
Memories of the talk
Of hen wives and of queer old men
Brace me and make me strong....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as “spectacles” to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions.... The learned are mere literary drudges.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)