Questions surrounding queer subjectivity—including shame, the closet, and celebration—are at the core of my interests as a painter and image maker. Mining the history of religious iconography, including annunciation paintings, scenes of the crucifixion, and other notable works of this ilk, my paintings seek to explore the intricacies of sexuality and the workings of shame and celebration at play in the life of the queer-identified.

本論文旨在分析愛倫坡作品中之陽剛氣質與同性慾望的社會建構，藉由探討男性 敘事者的負面情感與角色間的同性社交慾望，本研究意欲以酷兒閱讀的方法對美 國戰前時期文本提出新詮。 論文第一部分剖析短篇故事《黑貓》中正典陽剛氣質與異性戀婚家常規之共構、 重探維多利亞時期公私領域分離的意識形態如何性別化地形塑家庭與酒館之文 化意義，並據此提出敘事者和其寵物黑貓間的親密關係或可理解為一種酷兒情慾 之隱喻。在此脈絡下，敘事者對雄貓之恐懼與同性親密關係之拒斥遂映照出其悖 離資本主義式中產階級男性身分之挫敗陽剛。 第二部分以《威廉‧威爾森》為例，探討哥德傳統中反覆出現的替身母題與自戀 和男性偏執妄想之內在關聯。延續傳統上常見於愛倫坡研究的心理分析方法，此 章在不否定將主角替身視為超我的前提下，將焦點轉移至主角與替身之間競爭關 係的曖昧模稜，並揭示這種競爭關係與賽菊寇同性社交慾望理論之若合符節。 第三部分檢視同性慾望結構中常見的死亡慾力與肉身性如何具體而微地在長篇 小說《亞瑟‧戈登‧皮姆之自述》中呈現。此章從巴特勒對佛洛伊德《傷逝與憂 鬱》論述之改寫出發，重新闡釋故事中帶有毀滅色彩的重要場景──奧古斯特之 死與集體食人，並分析同性愛結構中被壓抑的慾力投注如何以情感遺骸之形式往 復迴返，成為美國戰前時期性別憂鬱之縮影。 據此，論文將問題意識收束在三個面向:陽剛身分之內在裂隙、同性社交情誼之 踰越性、與情感的性別政治意涵，透過梳理愛倫坡筆下男性角色的負面情感，本 論文得以發掘其作品中哥德元素、破碎陽剛與酷兒情慾間的潛在關聯，進而揭示 同性情慾如何在美國戰前文學中隱沒／現身。 / The present study engages three works written by Edgar Allan Poe to contextualize the construction of masculinity and same-sex desire in antebellum sensation fictions. While ample analyses have been dedicated to Poe’s depictions of femininity, the interrelation between masculinity and incipient homoeroticism in his stories proves to be significantly understudied. By examining the negative affects of Poe’s male protagonists—respectively fear in “The Black Cat,” paranoia in “William Wilson,” and melancholia in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, this project aims to provide a queer reinterpretation of these texts. Structurally, the thesis consists of five chapters. The second chapter délinéâtes the Victorian separate spheres ideology to explore its significance in the formation of normative manhood in “The Black Cat.” By underscoring the homoerotic Relationship between the narrator and Pluto, the study thereby sees the conclusion of the story as a testimonial to the unattainable ideals of Jacksonian manhood and its oppressive continuum with the heterosexual domestic sphere. In so doing, the study is able to substantiate a connection between the narrator’s perverseness with a homosocial desire that is subjected to heteronormative cultural silencing. The third chapter is an attempt to establish a linkage between Gothic doubling, narcissism, and male paranoia in “William Wilson.” While exhaustive studies have been taken upon to validate the readings wherein the second Wilson is treated as the narrator’s super-ego, the present study further argues that Gothic doubling finds expression in this tale in the form of capitalist competitiveness. Building on this observation, the project examines Poe’s doubling in relation to the narrator’s paranoia and his conscious disengagement from the patriarchal social order. Through a reassessment of the gentlemanly edifices of Poe’s male characters, this study explores the constructedness of antebellum manhood and discovers a concurrence of onanism and homosexuality in Poe’s time, thereby establishing a connection between Wilson’s narcissistic desire and its homoerotic potentialities. Lastly, the fourth chapter demonstrates how unconsummated mourning over the loss of same-sex ties in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket functions as an integral part of Jacksonian normative male identity. Focusing on the queer connotations of Pym’s break from patronymic ties, this study contends that becoming the antebellum subject entails a preclusion of homosexual attachments. Reconsidering the protagonist’s inability to mourn Augustus Barnard’s death and the crew’s cannibalism, this study sees Arthur Gordon Pym as the Butlerian melancholic subject who is unable to perform the work of mourning for his beloved object. Read in tandem with Freud’s conception of primordial parricide, the fraternal revolt that works at the center of the story can be viewed as a form of gender nonconformity which foregrounds melancholia in the abandonment of familial bonds. As such, the project excavates the instability, constructedness, and finally—the Gothicness that underlie Poe’s representations of masculinity. Reappraising the failed manhood of Poe’s men, this thesis concludes that the affective dynamics between Poe’s male characters are inextricably bound up with their broken masculinity and queer homoerotics.