2017 Research in the Capitol
Elephant in the Room: Bringing Homosexuality to the American Literary Conversation
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation (Electronic Copy Not Available)
Keywords
Gay culture in literature;
Abstract
American literature, even as it has celebrated a range of voices, has rarely allowed explicit representations of gay experiences within the canon of popular fiction and poetry. Even canonical gay writers have muffled their homosexual themes, relying on subtext to relay their characters’ identities. Gay culture has remained an elephant in the room, even within the sphere of the literary world, until now. The recent shift in social acceptance has revealed a hole in American literature, the absence of the gay narrative. My fiction and poetry explore the complexities of gay relationships and gay culture through a twenty-first century lens. It’s a narrative that has yet to be represented or told honestly, though in my writing I aim to with a short story “Elephant in the Room” and two poems, “A Rearranging” and an untitled piece.
Start Date
28-3-2017 11:30 AM
End Date
28-3-2017 1:30 PM
Event Host
University Honors Programs, Iowa Regent Universities
Faculty Advisor
Jim O'Laughlin
Department
Department of Languages and Literatures
Copyright
©2017 Clay Whisler
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Whisler, Clay, "Elephant in the Room: Bringing Homosexuality to the American Literary Conversation" (2017). Research in the Capitol. 18.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/rcapitol/2017/all/18
Elephant in the Room: Bringing Homosexuality to the American Literary Conversation
American literature, even as it has celebrated a range of voices, has rarely allowed explicit representations of gay experiences within the canon of popular fiction and poetry. Even canonical gay writers have muffled their homosexual themes, relying on subtext to relay their characters’ identities. Gay culture has remained an elephant in the room, even within the sphere of the literary world, until now. The recent shift in social acceptance has revealed a hole in American literature, the absence of the gay narrative. My fiction and poetry explore the complexities of gay relationships and gay culture through a twenty-first century lens. It’s a narrative that has yet to be represented or told honestly, though in my writing I aim to with a short story “Elephant in the Room” and two poems, “A Rearranging” and an untitled piece.
