Constrained in Liberation: Performative Queerness in Robert McAlmon's Berlin Stories

In Robert McAlmon's Berlin stories, written and set in the early years of Weimar Berlin, three Americans attempt to construct their homosexual identities. Their constructions are, however, informed by—and limited to—signs of queerness already in circulation. The city that offers all three characters the freedom to be queer thus also "confines" them to a degenerate, self-destructive lifestyle. Drawing on Judith Butler's theory that subjects are compelled to reiterate gender norms, the essay explore how these characters are constrained to repeat queer regulatory norms. Foster, "Miss" Knight, and "Steve" seemingly embrace the denigrated characteristics of queerness—casual sex, gender abnormality, excessive alcohol and cocaine usage, unproductive lifestyle—because the Berlin of McAlmon's text offers no alternative paradigm. McAlmon's stories alert us to the subtle, insidious workings of regulatory norms, whereby queer liberation re-enforces heteronormativity.