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"Still Happier Landscapes Beyond:" Queer Spirituality and Utopia in Bayard Taylor's Joseph and His Friend

Wagner, Adam J.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555422335940903

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English/Literature.
Bayard Taylor’s 1870 novel Joseph and His Friend, which some scholars refer to as America’s first gay novel, is a fascinating portrait of nineteenth-century American queerness. Using historical research and theoretical analysis, this project uncovers the various models of sexuality and romance that Taylor depicts in the text. The novel portrays its two main characters, Joseph and Philip, imagining future utopian spaces that resist heteronormative restrictions and allow for authentic expressions of queer affection. My work joins in conversation with scholars like Christopher Looby, Peter Coviello, and Axel Nissen and their research on nineteenth-century America, complicating our historical notions about queer relationships. Joseph and His Friend presages popular early-twentieth-century notions of sexuality and identity that were still coalescing in the mid-nineteenth-century, offering an insightful glance at forgotten understandings of American queerness. By queering evangelical Quaker doctrine, the novel uses Christian language and imagery to present its own version of theology that posits male-male intimacy as a path to spiritual communion with God. Joseph and His Friend also trades in visions of utopian spaces, positioning the American West as a site of homosocial connection and queer desire. By gazing at this forgotten queer novel, we can better understand the complexities of American sexuality as it developed in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, attending to the particularities of this historical moment and imagining the future queer utopias left for us to cultivate.
William Albertini, PhD (Advisor)
Jolie Sheffer, PhD (Committee Member)
138 p.
American History; American Literature; American Studies; Bible; History; Literature; Religious History
nineteenth-century American literature; queer history; religious studies; Quaker theology; queer theory; utopia; Bayard Taylor; the West;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wagner, A. J. (2019). "Still Happier Landscapes Beyond:" Queer Spirituality and Utopia in Bayard Taylor's Joseph and His Friend [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555422335940903

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wagner, Adam. "Still Happier Landscapes Beyond:" Queer Spirituality and Utopia in Bayard Taylor's Joseph and His Friend. 2019. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555422335940903.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wagner, Adam. ""Still Happier Landscapes Beyond:" Queer Spirituality and Utopia in Bayard Taylor's Joseph and His Friend." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555422335940903

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1555422335940903
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© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.