Sex in literature

Sexuality, for Colin Wilson, is a means for man to reexperience
his godliness. Wilson's personal development
went from a naive study of science, to nihilistic literature,
and emerged as mystical wonder at the world itself.
His view of sexuality paralleled his intellectual growth,
as the alienated adolescent sought transcendent meaning
in the disturbing pangs of puberty. The Bhagavad Gita
was a major influence on Wilson, introducing sexuality in
the East as a religious and scientific symbol of masculine
and feminine universal principles striving to reunite. He
was then able to resolve the inconsistencies between science,
mysticism, and sexuality. Quantum theory of wave;
particle duality, and the silent rhythms of the DNA code,
are both reflected in the sexual act committed with transcendent
consciousness. The one is simultaneously the
many, in a cosmic dance in which it meets itself.

If queer is an applicable label for that which aims to subvert or counteract normativity, then Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Wife of Bath's tale, and her Prologue are each, in their own ways, queer texts. I examine the ways in which the feminine presences of Morgan le Fay and the Loathly Lady influence and challenge the heteronormative, homosocial space of Arthur and his knights. The two knights in each respective tale journey away from their heteronormative spaces, in which a complex system of homosociality and chivalric patriarchy dominate, to a queer space where each must go against his societal norms and rely on feminine agency and talismans in order for their quests to succeed - and to ensure their survival. It is this very convergence of heteronormative and queer spaces that enables Morgan's defiance of heteronormativity and dominance over those who enter her feminine, non-normative domain.

This thesis focuses primarily on homophobia and how it plays a role in the construction of queer identities, specifically in graphic novels and comic books. The primary texts being analyzed are Alan Moore's Lost Girls, Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and Michael Chabon's prose novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Throughout these and many other comics, queer identities reflect homophobic stereotypes rather than resisting them. However, this thesis argues that, despite the homophobic tendencies of these texts, the very nature of comics (their visual aspects, panel structures, and blank gutters) allows for an alternative space for positive queer identities.