Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, 2019
Chuck Palahniuk's short story "Guts" is a work of transgressive fiction that exists at the inters... more Chuck Palahniuk's short story "Guts" is a work of transgressive fiction that exists at the intersections between literature, affect, and queer theory. This essay examines how the affects of shame and disgust function in relation to masculinity and, specifically, the highly policed and stigmatized non-normative sexuality of male youth
The BBC’s Sherlock has undoubtedly had a powerful impact on its fans, who transform what is alrea... more The BBC’s Sherlock has undoubtedly had a powerful impact on its fans, who transform what is already an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s literature into fanart and fanfiction. Although this high level of fan involvement is unprecedented in the age of the Internet, it is far from new. Since as early as the beginning of the twentieth century, scholars have written about the “Sherlockian game,” describing fans’ attempts to resolve the missing pieces of Conan Doyle’s literature by pretending that the Sherlock Holmes characters were actually real individuals. This paper will draw upon early essays on the “Sherlockian game,” ranging from the more obscure Arthur Bartlett Maurice and Frank Sidgwick, who introduced the concept in 1902, to the theorist who popularized the concept in the UK in 1911, Ronald Knox, and the one who brought it to America, Christopher Morley. However, since most of the scholarship on the Sherlock canon and the BBC’s Sherlock concentrates on the audience’s reception and artistic contributions to the series, my paper will shift the focus to how the show itself participates in promoting its fan culture. Sherlock’s writers, Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss, are hyper-aware of the fan culture that surrounds their show. In a 2013 BAFTA interview, Moffatt comments on the “Johnlock ship,” suggesting that it is mostly an object of the fans’ projection and imagination. However, Moffatt and Gatiss are long-term fans of the Sherlock Holmes franchise themselves, referring to their adaptation as a work of “fan-fiction” in its own right. Their show both explicitly refers to and playfully denies any romantic relationship between Sherlock and Watson. The writers even insert a character into the series that represents a contemporary fangirl. Furthermore, the series displays metafictional qualities as Watson constantly blurs the boundaries between the show and its audience with his refrain, “people might talk.” These not-so-subtle hints have led Sherlock fans to compile video evidence for the show’s perpetuation of homoerotic relationships, or as Tumblr users call it, “ships.” This paper will use Wimsatt Jr. and Beardsley’s theory of “intentional fallacy” to suggest a critical approach towards the denial that Moffatt and Gatiss display about the show’s participation in feeding its fandom’s desires for homoeroticism. Conversely, I will argue that the BBC’s Sherlock may be read as a text that encourages its fans to see the characters in romantic relationships with its explicit references to fan culture and the fans’ interests in homoeroticism. Following Walter Benjamin’s notion of an artwork’s “aura,” I will argue that the BBC’s Sherlock is aware of itself as an inauthentic adaptation and uses this self-awareness to market itself towards its particular fan culture. Thus, my paper will ultimately focus on the BBC’s Sherlock’s metafictional awareness of itself as situated within a larger context of the Sherlock canon, including Conan Doyle’s original literary texts, their numerous adaptations, and the vibrant fan culture that begun as early as the Sherlock publications and has flourished with the advent of the internet.
Transgressive fiction writer, Chuck Palahniuk, has been the subject of controversy regarding his ... more Transgressive fiction writer, Chuck Palahniuk, has been the subject of controversy regarding his non-heteronormative sexuality and its apparent “contrast” to his hypermasculine literature. After the release of his notorious novel, Fight Club, in 1996, Palahniuk’s rise to literary fame captured the imagination of the macho youth subculture. Palahniuk published his autobiography, Stranger than Fiction: True Stories, in 2004, a year after a confrontation with Karen Valby that lead him to publicly reveal his sexuality. Although this novel is not a direct response to this incident, Palahniuk discusses his personal life more in this non-fiction piece than in any previous work. He divides it into three sections: “People Together,” “Portraits,” and “Personal.” In the first one, he explores how notions of “togetherness” are informed by capitalistic beauty ideals. The story, “Frontiers,” recounts Palahniuk’s experience with steroids, an attempt at hypermasculinity. Similarly, in the “Personal” section, Palahniuk recounts his efforts to fit into the heteronormative mould through lip enhancement. These stories reveal how gender binaries are reinforced through superficial beauty practices, such as hormonal drugs and body enhancement devices. Palahniuk critiques how the capitalist system preys on consumers’ insecurities to convince them that their gender performativity can be perfected through artificial products and procedures. This paper utilizes Judith Butler's theory of performativity to analyze how beauty standards are entrenched in binaristic heteronormative gender models and Capitalism.
On the thirteenth season of the reality television show Survivor, known as Survivor: Cook Islands... more On the thirteenth season of the reality television show Survivor, known as Survivor: Cook Islands, twenty Americans became stranded on an island in a game for a million dollars. The unique feature of this season was that they were divided into tribes based on race. These races consisted of the African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinos, and Caucasians. The decision to have a season based on race divisions and an eventual multicultural merge was extraordinarily controversial before it even aired. Firstly, several races were excluded, like natives and middleeastern people. In addition, while the three minority groups experienced greater exposure in the white-dominated television sector, they are still scrutinized under a white lens. As Richard Fung in "Looking for My Penis" points out about the gay porn industry, increasing the number of people who represent a particular race does not necessarily have the authority to change that race's representation. In Stuart Hall's "The West and the Rest", Hall asserts that objective truth does not exist and the group with power has the ability to generate discourse, which continues to be the white race. The ideology of colour blindness was in constant combat with the desire to represent one's race and break stereotypes. While many cast-members believed that they were able to ignore race, particular cohesions and divisions, recurring tropes, and unconscious racism proved otherwise. Survivor: Cook Islands changed its focus from segregation to integration, favouring multiculturalism, colour-blindness, and post-racialism. However, the prevalence of racial stereotypes and covert racism shows how deeply race is imbedded into the American culture.
For postcolonial writers, their native languages intertwine with colonial languages that were enf... more For postcolonial writers, their native languages intertwine with colonial languages that were enforced upon them from childhood as it creates a complex identity. Gloria Anzaldúa's semi-autobiographical work, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, explores the difficulty belonging and writing as a Chicana: a Mexican-American. Her writing purposefully combines Spanish and English to reflect her complicated identity. The essay by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, "The Language of African Literature," also contemplates which language choice is most appropriate for a postcolonial writer's literary work. After his essay series, Ngũgĩ ultimately chooses to reject the colonizer's language, English, and returns to writing solely in his native language, Gikuyu. In his essay, Ngũgĩ mentions Chinua Achebe, another famous African writer, who writes in English because he suggests that his native language, Igbo, is unavailable to him due to his colonial schooling. Some significant factors that affect the choice of language include the influence of one's colonial education and the question of audience. Postcolonial identities are multifaceted as they are influenced by the native languages that retain both precolonial and postcolonial cultural elements as well as the colonizer's language. To reflect their complex identities, postcolonial authors should incorporate multiple languages into their writing rather than adhering to the Western binary between native and colonial languages. This essay explores the process of creating ambivalence through literature and its importance for challenging colonial powers.
In Zadie Smith's Hanwell in Hell, Clive controls the recollection of the story, retelling his acq... more In Zadie Smith's Hanwell in Hell, Clive controls the recollection of the story, retelling his acquaintance with Mr. --Hanwell to Claire Hanwell, his estranged daughter. Clive presents a phallocentric perspective by silencing females and describing the non-white races as the 'Other'.
In Truth and Bright Water, Thomas King makes various metaphorical connections between the buffalo... more In Truth and Bright Water, Thomas King makes various metaphorical connections between the buffalo and the natives to reconfigure the prevailing Canadian cultural discourse surrounding native people. In this novel, King focuses on a "critique of authenticity" as well as "the role of the artist" and reveals the "complexity and creativity of Native writers and their art" (Archibald-Barber 237). Marta Dvorak argues that King's novel does not strives to subvert the hegemony head on; alternatively, King uses a more complex and elliptical method. Jesse Rae Archibald-Barber suggests that, through his novel, King questions the existence of and ability to restore native cultural authenticity. Barbara S. Bruce sees Monroe as an avenue for King to express his literary art's inability to erase the effects of colonization. King negotiates dialogically with the hegemony when he parallels the buffalo and the natives in Elvin's counter-discursive version of the historical reasons behind the buffalo disappearance, Munro's play on the ideology of authenticity through his decoy buffalo, and Tecumseh's musing about a utopian past prior to violence towards the buffalo from the Europeans and the natives. Through this symbolism, King complicates prevailing notions of native cultural authenticity and demonstrates self-awareness about his novel's non-oppositional stance as resistance art.
Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, 2019
Chuck Palahniuk's short story "Guts" is a work of transgressive fiction that exists at the inters... more Chuck Palahniuk's short story "Guts" is a work of transgressive fiction that exists at the intersections between literature, affect, and queer theory. This essay examines how the affects of shame and disgust function in relation to masculinity and, specifically, the highly policed and stigmatized non-normative sexuality of male youth
The BBC’s Sherlock has undoubtedly had a powerful impact on its fans, who transform what is alrea... more The BBC’s Sherlock has undoubtedly had a powerful impact on its fans, who transform what is already an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s literature into fanart and fanfiction. Although this high level of fan involvement is unprecedented in the age of the Internet, it is far from new. Since as early as the beginning of the twentieth century, scholars have written about the “Sherlockian game,” describing fans’ attempts to resolve the missing pieces of Conan Doyle’s literature by pretending that the Sherlock Holmes characters were actually real individuals. This paper will draw upon early essays on the “Sherlockian game,” ranging from the more obscure Arthur Bartlett Maurice and Frank Sidgwick, who introduced the concept in 1902, to the theorist who popularized the concept in the UK in 1911, Ronald Knox, and the one who brought it to America, Christopher Morley. However, since most of the scholarship on the Sherlock canon and the BBC’s Sherlock concentrates on the audience’s reception and artistic contributions to the series, my paper will shift the focus to how the show itself participates in promoting its fan culture. Sherlock’s writers, Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss, are hyper-aware of the fan culture that surrounds their show. In a 2013 BAFTA interview, Moffatt comments on the “Johnlock ship,” suggesting that it is mostly an object of the fans’ projection and imagination. However, Moffatt and Gatiss are long-term fans of the Sherlock Holmes franchise themselves, referring to their adaptation as a work of “fan-fiction” in its own right. Their show both explicitly refers to and playfully denies any romantic relationship between Sherlock and Watson. The writers even insert a character into the series that represents a contemporary fangirl. Furthermore, the series displays metafictional qualities as Watson constantly blurs the boundaries between the show and its audience with his refrain, “people might talk.” These not-so-subtle hints have led Sherlock fans to compile video evidence for the show’s perpetuation of homoerotic relationships, or as Tumblr users call it, “ships.” This paper will use Wimsatt Jr. and Beardsley’s theory of “intentional fallacy” to suggest a critical approach towards the denial that Moffatt and Gatiss display about the show’s participation in feeding its fandom’s desires for homoeroticism. Conversely, I will argue that the BBC’s Sherlock may be read as a text that encourages its fans to see the characters in romantic relationships with its explicit references to fan culture and the fans’ interests in homoeroticism. Following Walter Benjamin’s notion of an artwork’s “aura,” I will argue that the BBC’s Sherlock is aware of itself as an inauthentic adaptation and uses this self-awareness to market itself towards its particular fan culture. Thus, my paper will ultimately focus on the BBC’s Sherlock’s metafictional awareness of itself as situated within a larger context of the Sherlock canon, including Conan Doyle’s original literary texts, their numerous adaptations, and the vibrant fan culture that begun as early as the Sherlock publications and has flourished with the advent of the internet.
Transgressive fiction writer, Chuck Palahniuk, has been the subject of controversy regarding his ... more Transgressive fiction writer, Chuck Palahniuk, has been the subject of controversy regarding his non-heteronormative sexuality and its apparent “contrast” to his hypermasculine literature. After the release of his notorious novel, Fight Club, in 1996, Palahniuk’s rise to literary fame captured the imagination of the macho youth subculture. Palahniuk published his autobiography, Stranger than Fiction: True Stories, in 2004, a year after a confrontation with Karen Valby that lead him to publicly reveal his sexuality. Although this novel is not a direct response to this incident, Palahniuk discusses his personal life more in this non-fiction piece than in any previous work. He divides it into three sections: “People Together,” “Portraits,” and “Personal.” In the first one, he explores how notions of “togetherness” are informed by capitalistic beauty ideals. The story, “Frontiers,” recounts Palahniuk’s experience with steroids, an attempt at hypermasculinity. Similarly, in the “Personal” section, Palahniuk recounts his efforts to fit into the heteronormative mould through lip enhancement. These stories reveal how gender binaries are reinforced through superficial beauty practices, such as hormonal drugs and body enhancement devices. Palahniuk critiques how the capitalist system preys on consumers’ insecurities to convince them that their gender performativity can be perfected through artificial products and procedures. This paper utilizes Judith Butler's theory of performativity to analyze how beauty standards are entrenched in binaristic heteronormative gender models and Capitalism.
On the thirteenth season of the reality television show Survivor, known as Survivor: Cook Islands... more On the thirteenth season of the reality television show Survivor, known as Survivor: Cook Islands, twenty Americans became stranded on an island in a game for a million dollars. The unique feature of this season was that they were divided into tribes based on race. These races consisted of the African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinos, and Caucasians. The decision to have a season based on race divisions and an eventual multicultural merge was extraordinarily controversial before it even aired. Firstly, several races were excluded, like natives and middleeastern people. In addition, while the three minority groups experienced greater exposure in the white-dominated television sector, they are still scrutinized under a white lens. As Richard Fung in "Looking for My Penis" points out about the gay porn industry, increasing the number of people who represent a particular race does not necessarily have the authority to change that race's representation. In Stuart Hall's "The West and the Rest", Hall asserts that objective truth does not exist and the group with power has the ability to generate discourse, which continues to be the white race. The ideology of colour blindness was in constant combat with the desire to represent one's race and break stereotypes. While many cast-members believed that they were able to ignore race, particular cohesions and divisions, recurring tropes, and unconscious racism proved otherwise. Survivor: Cook Islands changed its focus from segregation to integration, favouring multiculturalism, colour-blindness, and post-racialism. However, the prevalence of racial stereotypes and covert racism shows how deeply race is imbedded into the American culture.
For postcolonial writers, their native languages intertwine with colonial languages that were enf... more For postcolonial writers, their native languages intertwine with colonial languages that were enforced upon them from childhood as it creates a complex identity. Gloria Anzaldúa's semi-autobiographical work, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, explores the difficulty belonging and writing as a Chicana: a Mexican-American. Her writing purposefully combines Spanish and English to reflect her complicated identity. The essay by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, "The Language of African Literature," also contemplates which language choice is most appropriate for a postcolonial writer's literary work. After his essay series, Ngũgĩ ultimately chooses to reject the colonizer's language, English, and returns to writing solely in his native language, Gikuyu. In his essay, Ngũgĩ mentions Chinua Achebe, another famous African writer, who writes in English because he suggests that his native language, Igbo, is unavailable to him due to his colonial schooling. Some significant factors that affect the choice of language include the influence of one's colonial education and the question of audience. Postcolonial identities are multifaceted as they are influenced by the native languages that retain both precolonial and postcolonial cultural elements as well as the colonizer's language. To reflect their complex identities, postcolonial authors should incorporate multiple languages into their writing rather than adhering to the Western binary between native and colonial languages. This essay explores the process of creating ambivalence through literature and its importance for challenging colonial powers.
In Zadie Smith's Hanwell in Hell, Clive controls the recollection of the story, retelling his acq... more In Zadie Smith's Hanwell in Hell, Clive controls the recollection of the story, retelling his acquaintance with Mr. --Hanwell to Claire Hanwell, his estranged daughter. Clive presents a phallocentric perspective by silencing females and describing the non-white races as the 'Other'.
In Truth and Bright Water, Thomas King makes various metaphorical connections between the buffalo... more In Truth and Bright Water, Thomas King makes various metaphorical connections between the buffalo and the natives to reconfigure the prevailing Canadian cultural discourse surrounding native people. In this novel, King focuses on a "critique of authenticity" as well as "the role of the artist" and reveals the "complexity and creativity of Native writers and their art" (Archibald-Barber 237). Marta Dvorak argues that King's novel does not strives to subvert the hegemony head on; alternatively, King uses a more complex and elliptical method. Jesse Rae Archibald-Barber suggests that, through his novel, King questions the existence of and ability to restore native cultural authenticity. Barbara S. Bruce sees Monroe as an avenue for King to express his literary art's inability to erase the effects of colonization. King negotiates dialogically with the hegemony when he parallels the buffalo and the natives in Elvin's counter-discursive version of the historical reasons behind the buffalo disappearance, Munro's play on the ideology of authenticity through his decoy buffalo, and Tecumseh's musing about a utopian past prior to violence towards the buffalo from the Europeans and the natives. Through this symbolism, King complicates prevailing notions of native cultural authenticity and demonstrates self-awareness about his novel's non-oppositional stance as resistance art.
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