Cotton's Queer Relations: Same-Sex Intimacy and the Literature of the Southern Plantation, 1936-1968

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments When I first became interested in studying queer sexualities in southern literature, I thought it would be mostly a matter of tracking down marginal or neglected works that depicted gay or lesbian characters or encounters. What I found is that such a project actually requires a different way of reading both within the canon and at the margins. Alternative forms of gender and sexuality in southern texts do not always resemble the kinds of sexual expression we may be typically more used to seeing. We must train our eyes to recognize the subtle presence of “deviant,” different, and non-normative forms of gender and sexuality embedded within works that, on the surface, might not seem to include much that is overtly queer, let alone “gay” or “lesbian.” Reorienting my own perspective has not always been easy, and I have had a lot of help along the way. Rebecca Mark, under whose direction I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation at Tulane University, has been an invaluable friend, coach, confidante, champion, and advisor. Felipe Smith and Gaurav Desai challenged and encouraged me with their close attention to detail, their critical insights, and their indispensable advice. Molly Rothenberg helped me strengthen and refine my ideas and my writing, especially in my chapter on Styron. And I was fortunate to benefit more broadly from the advice and guidance of Joseph Roach, Molly Travis, Teresa Toulouse, Richard Rambuss, Janice Carlyle, Barry Ahearn, and others. Thanks also to friends who aided this project in a variety of ways from my time in New Orleans to the present: Allys Dierker, Elizabeth Lewis, Maureen Riddle, Kore Alexis, John Kelly, Michael Rosa, John Searles, Ben Finley, Dale McDaniel, and Richelle Munkhoff. x / acknowledgments The University of Mary Washington made it possible for me to work on this manuscript with a professional development grant. But I owe so much more to Mara Scanlon, Claudia Emerson, James Harding, and Jeffrey McClurken for their friendship, inspiration, and support. Cheers also to Kevin McCluskey, Jeff Edmunds, Bill Templin, and Terry Kennedy. Jessica Adams has been a priceless friend and colleague—a tireless reader, critic, conspirator, and compatriot. Cécile Accilien has been a superb collaborator academically and spiritually. Special thanks to Monica Pearl for her comments on the manuscript (and for helping me adjust to Manchester), to the anonymous readers at the University of Virginia Press, and to everyone in the United States and the United Kingdom who read and commented on drafts of chapters, responded to conference papers, and otherwise indulged me in conversations on the topic, including Barbara Ladd, Richard Godden, Gary Richards, John Howard, Anne Goodwyn Jones, Patricia Yaeger, Maria Lauret, Sharon Patricia Holland, Barbara Ewell, and probably many others I’m forgetting . Cathie Brettschneider at the University of Virginia Press deserves a medal for her unflagging patience, assistance, and faith. Thanks also to Ellen Satrom and Angie Hogan at the Press, to Tim Roberts with the American Literatures Initiative, and to Susan Murray for her muchneeded thoroughness and expertise as copy editor. My parents and family have been a solid source of inspiration and support. But really I owe everything to my partner, Allan Edmunds, who has been with me through every stage of this project, as well as so much more. His patience and support have been nothing less than heroic. I could have done none of this without him, and I dedicate this book to him with love and gratitude. Somesectionsofthisbookwerepublishedpreviously,andIamgrateful forthepermissiontoreprintthatmaterialhere.Anearlierversionofchapter3appearedas “‘ATendernessWhichWasUncommon’:Homosexuality, Narrative and the Southern Plantation in Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Mississippi Quarterly 55, no. 3 (Summer 2002): 381–400. An earlier version of chapter 6 appeared with the title “‘As If Set Free into Another Land’: Homosexuality, Rebellion, and Community in William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner,” in Perversion and the Social Relation, edited by Molly Anne Rothenberg, Dennis A. Foster and Slavoj Žižek, 159–86, copyright 2003, Duke University Press, all rights reserved, used by permission of the publisher. Cotton’s Queer Relations This page intentionally left blank ...