<p> The post-apocalyptic narrative has been imagined time and again in American literature and popular culture. More often than not, it is presented as a dystopian future in which all signs of humanity and the world as we know it are lost. Through an examination of nature and environment, humanity, and time and futurity within two post-apocalyptic texts&mdash;Cormac McCarthy's novel <i>The Road</i> and Robert Kirkman's graphic novel <i> The Walking Dead</i>&mdash;this thesis explores the manner in which heteronormativity is presented and, more importantly, the ways in which this type of dominant order can be and are disrupted. Reading against the grain, I explore definitions "normative" and "nonnormative," "human" and "monstrous" within the post-apocalyptic narrative in an effort to suggest that these definitions are complicated in an attempt to present the post-apocalyptic future as a space for multiple potentialities and possibilities of living.</p>

<p> This thesis explores Julia Ward Howe's unfinished manuscript, <i> The Hermaphrodite</i> (2004). In order to establish a foundation, this thesis begins by approaching <i>The Hermaphrodite</i> through lenses that connect to Howe's life and times. The biographical, feminist, and gothic approaches analyze the effects of personal conflicts, gender concerns, and setting nuances on the manuscript. The analysis of previous treatment of hermaphrodites provides background on ambiguous protagonists. Ultimately, this thesis expands upon and diverges from preceding scholarship, and it establishes a new perspective through which to view the hermaphroditic protagonist, Laurence. This thesis argues that Howe's Laurence can be read as are-visioned Christ figure. His/her physical description is strikingly reminiscent of the accounts of Jesus's appearance. Both Jesus and Laurence are entwined with pious symbols. Laurence is intrinsically connected to the purity of the cross. Most importantly, Laurence and Jesus both gallantly endure burdens and selflessly sacrifice themselves for others while transiently inhabiting earth before returning to heaven. Laurence is an unexpected and reinvented savior.</p>

<p> One need not strain to find examples of male sentimentality in contemporary US popular culture: From frequent news stories on "Weeper of the House" John Boehner, to the success of Judd Apatow's poignant "bromance" movies, to last year's film adaptation of Stephen Chbosky's celebrated adolescent novel, <i> The Perks of Being a Wallflower</i> (1999), the man of feeling seems more present and popular than ever. With an unsettling display of excessive emotion emanating from the male body, each iteration provokes in viewers, listeners, and cultural critics any one of several disparate responses: Whether committed to the transgressive potential of a male who <i>feels</i> different because he offers vulnerability where others offer hardened restraint, or whether insistent in the claim that these texts simply add to what Gail Bederman would call the "remaking" of a continually complex normative subject, we find in the man of feeling an ambivalent subject for the public sphere. The initial question for readers, listeners, or viewers is often a simple one: is male sentimentality transformative and progressive, or is it pathetic and self-serving? But the presumption that we must answer one way or another belies the historical and cultural complexity of the man of feeling, and merely reinforces a kind of political approach to reading that simply replicates our own attitudes and relation to normativity and its privileges. This dissertation&mdash;under the impulse of recent work in queer theory and affect to reach closer to, rather than further from, normativity&mdash;takes up the counterintuitive position that we might draw this unlikely subject of the wallflower out from the sidelines and use him to interrogate normativity not from outside, but rather <i>beside,</i> its unsteady borders. It asks a central question&mdash;What does it mean for a critique of normativity to come from the normative subject?&mdash;and argues that the "peripheral" reading of normativity he helps enable might serve to render the logics of normativity in different ways than we can with more traditionally oppositional forms of critique.</p>

<p><i>Bone Garden</i> is a collection of poetry that inspects interpersonal communication and an often misguided sense of connection with others. Through investigations of memory, disaster, aging, and gender, the collection depicts a world in which many of us fruitlessly search for empathy and a sense of solidarity. Leading this investigation is a narrator whose frustrations with isolation often result in passive aggressive behavior or violence that furthers her separation from others. <i>Bone Garden</i> proposes solidarity as a salted plot and despair as the bitter fruit harvested by those who believe in it. </p>

<p> Many consider David Foster Wallace&rsquo;s <i>Infinite Jest</i>, an overtly <i>masculine</i> novel, in that most of it centers on or around male characters. Though one may locate powerful, influential, and even relatable female characters, it&rsquo;s difficult to pair them with a positive image or representation of the feminine. I argue that this lack of a positive representation is due to the novel&rsquo;s primary symbol and plot device, the deadly <i>Entertainment</i>. Using Luce Irigaray&rsquo;s <i> Sp&eacute;culum de l&rsquo;autre femme</i> (&lsquo;Speculum of the Other Woman,&rsquo; 1974) as a model, I examine <i>The Entertainment</i> as the key tool and target of my feminist critique. This ultimately sheds light on a fundamental &ldquo;blind-spot&rdquo; within <i>Infinite Jest </i>, as well as many scholarly readings of it.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2010. / Adviser: Seth Moglen.

<p> This article will discuss the ways in which modern identity politics have encouraged us to label the sexuality of American authors of the past and the effects of those labels. Specifically discussing Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, I will discuss the history of nineteenth-century American sexuality, the assumptions placed upon Dickinson and Whitman with regard to their sexual identities, the political and social implications, and modern media consumption and presentation of those identities.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4326. Adviser: Siobhan Somerville. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 289-320) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.