Queer and Feminist Theories of Narrative

Book excerpt: This book argues for the importance of narrative theories which consider gender and sexuality through the analysis of a diverse range of texts and media. Classical Narratology, an allegedly neutral descriptive system for features of narrative, has been replaced by a diverse set of theories which are attentive to the contexts in which narratives are composed and received. Issues of gender and sexuality have, nevertheless, been sidelined by new strands which consider, for example, cognitive, transmedial, national or historical inflections instead. Through consideration of texts including the MTV series Faking It and the papers of a nineteenth-century activist, Queer and Feminist Theories of Narrative heeds the original call of feminist narratologists for the consideration of a broader and larger corpus of material. Through analysis of issues including the popular representation of lesbian desire, the queer narrative voice, invisibility and power in the digital age, embodiment and cognitive narratology, reading and racial codes, this book argues that a named strand of narrative theory which employs feminist and queer theories as intersectional vectors is contemporary and urgent. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Textual Practice.