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Harvat Dissertation.pdf (25.06 MB)

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Histories beyond Hurt: Queer Historical Literature and Media since the AIDS Epidemic

Harvat, Zachary
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555503462022072

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
Queer scholarship on history and historical media has tended toward the negative, emphasizing trauma, loss, injury, melancholia, and the like. This scholarship, in other words, posits a fundamentally negative relationship between queer subjects and their history, echoing Jameson's famous assertion that "history is what hurts." I argue that such fundamentally-negative relationships to history are neither inevitable nor intrinsic. Bringing together a variety of texts produced by and about queers, I demonstrate how queer writers, filmmakers, artists, and game designers since the 1980s have developed playful relationships to history that do not negate the realities of historical trauma but expand the affective registers with which the past might be engaged. These texts emphasize humor, joy, pleasure, and irreverence alongside trauma, treating the past as an open space for formal and affective play that allows for complex negotiations across time. Given the often-dark realities of queer history, such playful engagements with the past may seem counter-intuitive. But my research suggests that treating history as a space for play opens it up for queer subjects in unexpected and provocative ways. Rethinking how and why we engage with the past engenders reconsiderations of many ideas and logics that have been cast aside by queer studies because of their association with liberal, linear narratives of progress: genealogy, visibility, fantasy, even the notion of progress itself. Playing with the past allows queer artists the opportunity to explore these issues in complex and often counter-intuitive ways, demonstrating their utility when uncoupled from their association with linear narratives of progress. If history is what hurts and nothing more, how will we ever find anything but hurt when we turn backward?
Martin Ponce, PhD (Advisor)
Jian Chen, PhD (Committee Member)
Brian McHale, PhD (Committee Member)
364 p.
American Literature; American Studies; Glbt Studies; Literature
queer studies; LGBTQ literature; video game studies; queer history; media studies; affect; play

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Harvat, Z. (2019). Histories beyond Hurt: Queer Historical Literature and Media since the AIDS Epidemic [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555503462022072

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Harvat, Zachary. Histories beyond Hurt: Queer Historical Literature and Media since the AIDS Epidemic. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555503462022072.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Harvat, Zachary. "Histories beyond Hurt: Queer Historical Literature and Media since the AIDS Epidemic." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555503462022072

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1555503462022072
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© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.