Nobody Dies at the End? Exploring the Possibilities of Optimism in Gay Men's Writing in Twenty-First Century American Literature

My research project will be one of the first to critically examine the literary and cultural implications of intersectionality in twenty-first century gay men's writing in the USA. It will also be one of the first to undertake a comparative examination of the possibilities (and challenges) of queer optimism in this literary corpus. The goal of my research is to provide crucial insight into the significance of gay men's - and in particular gay men from marginalised communities - literary production to America's self-identity as it grapples with demographic change, the culture wars, and the prominence of millennials as producers and consumers of literature. By critically engaging with gay men's writing, my research will explore these key tensions and ask what role might queer expression play in creating a better America. I will focus on the work of authors such as Brandon Taylor, Ocean Vuong, Bryan Washington and Anthony So because of their visibility in the media and in the contemporary literary marketplace. I will also use the Lambda Literary Awards shortlists as an archival base for identifying the changes in queer representational strategies and in criteria for critical appeal over the last two decades.

My hypotheses are threefold. The first posits that contemporary gay men's writing in the US remains preoccupied with representing anxiety, violence, vulnerability and family trauma linked to the homosexuality of its protagonists but is less concerned with the closet (Russo, 1987) and the death (Bersani, 1987) of its protagonists than works produced in the twentieth century. Second, a significant strand of contemporary gay men's writing involves examining young gay men's lives at the intersection between sexuality and other social identity categories such as race, class and cultural background (Crenshaw, 1989; Ahmed, 2006). For example, the protagonist of Taylor's Real Life experiences discrimination because of his African-American ethnicity, his homosexuality and his working-class, Southern background. The novel brings into sharp relief the myriad difficulties he faces on the basis of his identity. The third posits that life at the intersection both complicates and enhances the possibility of 'queer optimism' (Snediker, 2006; Munoz, 1999 & 2009).

To chart the status of contemporary American gay men's writing and theorise the social and cultural interventions this writing is making, my research will address the following questions:

What significance does the positive/optimistic representation of gay male protagonists have?

What is the importance of the ways in which this literature produces and nuances intersectional
identities?

Does the representation of intersectional identities challenge or embolden possibilities of optimism for
America's future?

My thesis chapters will discuss the significance of the following in gay men's writing: the nature of intersectional identities (for example, that of the African American PhD student at the heart of Taylor's Real Life); queer love and sex (for instance, within California's Cambodian American community in So's Afterparties and interracial Black and Asian partnerships in Washington's Memorial); family relationships and tensions (e.g., in Vuong's acclaimed anthology On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous); and the concept of the Bildungsroman.