Thesis
Viewing articulations: a queer affective genre
University of Iowa
Master of Arts (MA), University of Iowa
Spring 2024
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007446
Abstract
In this MA thesis, I aim to explain why certain texts “feel” queer. I employ articulation and affect theory to examine discursive relationships between entertainment media texts and queer identity. This thesis focuses on three texts and/or franchises – The Muppets, Pink Flamingos (1972), and Dark Shadows (1966-1971) – and considers their reception in public, professionalized writing such as newspapers and magazines. These reception artifacts show audiences decoding the films and television series as queer. Namely, they identify relationships between camp, divas, and queerness in their decoding. I argue that viewers’ classification of certain texts and textual properties as “queer” has formed a queer genre. I establish a historical presence of this genre during the period of the 1960s through the 1980s. As this time was already significant for queer communal identity and politics, I further underscore the establishment of queer reading practices during this period. These practices, where queer people read certain textual properties as queer, thereby form a collection of related texts. Furthermore, this affective genre signifies an increased agency from audiences through this establishment of a genre, as industrial encoding is not always necessary for a queer decoding. This queer affective genre is formed primarily by audiences, giving insight to alternative cultural formations of genre; moreover, it underscores entanglements between queer identity and entertainment media.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Viewing articulations: a queer affective genre
- Creators
- Celeste Yvonne Howington
- Contributors
- Kembrew McLeod (Advisor)Alfred Martin Jr (Committee Member)Joy Hayes (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Arts (MA), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Communication Studies
- Date degree season
- Spring 2024
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007446
- Number of pages
- v, 39 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2024 Celeste Yvonne Howington
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 04/23/2024
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 32-39).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
In this MA thesis, I explain why certain things “feel” queer. Through analyzing public magazine, newspaper, and website articles, this thesis examines the relationship between The Muppets franchise, Pink Flamingos (1972), Dark Shadows (1966-1971) and queer identity. Throughout these articles, certain tropes, aesthetics, or feelings are connected to expressions or queerness, queer joy, or queer identity in general. Specifically, the articles establish a relationship between queerness and the textual properties of camp and diva. With these common textual properties, I argue that viewers have formed a genre within the 1960s through the 1980s based on queer feelings, which I identify as a queer affective genre. This genre serves as a collection of texts which readers find related textual properties, which inform their readings of other films within the genre. This expands current understanding of an audience’s role in the establishment and continuation of genres, giving them a more active role. Furthermore, this genre contributes to conversations regarding queer identity and its relationship to entertainment media; specifically, it points to a symbiotic relationship between the two, where both inform and shape each other.
- Academic Unit
- Communication Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9984647148902771
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