Date of Award

3-16-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of English: English Studies

First Advisor

Ricardo C. Cruz

Abstract

The experience of many queer subjects in "coming-out" often results in a great deal of continued adversity over the course of their lifetimes, in spite of what popular, exceptionalized narratives such as the "It Gets Better" campaign might suggest. "Coming out" often entails a great deal of trauma, thus making the need to continue "coming out" a source from which anguish continues to emanate and affect queer bodies. Unfortunately, there are few fictional texts dealing specifically with "coming-out" trauma narratives. Queer subjects who continue to endure trauma through the act of "coming out" often discover that the written worlds of their experiences are either recklessly optimistic, or cruel and inhospitable. This project seeks to begin a new conversation towards addressing the great lack of visibility concerning "coming-out" trauma narratives in works of fiction, and it seeks to define a possible means of developing literary works that can resolve this absence.

Comments

Imported from ProQuest Pitman_ilstu_0092N_10717.pdf

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2016.Pitman.E

Page Count

127

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