Subjects Who Cannot Be Consoled: The Discarded Opening of Albert Angelo and the Queer Afterlife of “BS” Johnson in We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner
In the discarded opening section of Albert Angelo (1964), recovered by Jonathan Coe in his biography of B. S. Johnson, the narrator laments how “God had made another ballsup”: the protagonist’s “other half” is “almost a man instead of wholly a woman”. This essay reads Johnson’s abandoned representat...
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| 發表在: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| 主要作者: | |
| 格式: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| 語言: | Anglais |
| 出版: |
Angles
2021
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| 主題: | |
| 在線閱讀: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_3715 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
openedition |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
théorie queer roman expérimental politique queer Johnson B. S. Waidner Isabel queer theory experimental novel queer politics Johnson B. S. Waidner Isabel |
| spellingShingle |
théorie queer roman expérimental politique queer Johnson B. S. Waidner Isabel queer theory experimental novel queer politics Johnson B. S. Waidner Isabel Clarke, Chris Subjects Who Cannot Be Consoled: The Discarded Opening of Albert Angelo and the Queer Afterlife of “BS” Johnson in We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner |
| description |
In the discarded opening section of Albert Angelo (1964), recovered by Jonathan Coe in his biography of B. S. Johnson, the narrator laments how “God had made another ballsup”: the protagonist’s “other half” is “almost a man instead of wholly a woman”. This essay reads Johnson’s abandoned representation of same-sex desire through the “tradition of queer backwardness” traced by Heather Love in Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History (2007). I argue that the abandoned fragment’s representation of “an unspeakable, inexplicable knowing” between two characters evokes the “backward feelings” which Love proposes are tied to “the historical ‘impossibility’ of same-sex desire” (Love 2007). In doing so, I show how Johnson’s literary afterlife lies in orientating readers to modernity’s denigrated “others”, such as sexual deviants marginalized for refusing to take what Johnson calls the “normal way”. Where the backward feelings in Johnson’s experimental novel illuminate his work’s resistance to various conditions of modern subjecthood, they can equally help us understand the resonance between his work and recent innovative fiction, which also contests punitive forms of social normalization. Isabel Waidner’s “critically British novel”, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff (2019), for example, reanimates Johnson’s perverse character “House Mother Normal” to propel its critique of the inequities of class, queerness, and national identity. We can appreciate what remains most subversive about Johnson’s experimental novels by charting how their backwardness reverberates with the concerns of queer experimental literature in the present. |
| author |
Clarke, Chris |
| author_facet |
Clarke, Chris |
| author_sort |
Clarke, Chris |
| title |
Subjects Who Cannot Be Consoled: The Discarded Opening of Albert Angelo and the Queer Afterlife of “BS” Johnson in We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner |
| title_short |
Subjects Who Cannot Be Consoled: The Discarded Opening of Albert Angelo and the Queer Afterlife of “BS” Johnson in We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner |
| title_full |
Subjects Who Cannot Be Consoled: The Discarded Opening of Albert Angelo and the Queer Afterlife of “BS” Johnson in We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner |
| title_fullStr |
Subjects Who Cannot Be Consoled: The Discarded Opening of Albert Angelo and the Queer Afterlife of “BS” Johnson in We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Subjects Who Cannot Be Consoled: The Discarded Opening of Albert Angelo and the Queer Afterlife of “BS” Johnson in We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner |
| title_sort |
subjects who cannot be consoled: the discarded opening of albert angelo and the queer afterlife of “bs” johnson in we are made of diamond stuff by isabel waidner |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.3715 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/3715 |
| _version_ |
1877293350948700160 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_3715 https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.3715 urn:doi:10.4000/angles.3715 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/3715 2021-12-27T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/9n1f https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subjects Who Cannot Be Consoled: The Discarded Opening of Albert Angelo and the Queer Afterlife of “BS” Johnson in We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Clarke, Chris théorie queer roman expérimental politique queer Johnson B. S. Waidner Isabel queer theory experimental novel queer politics Johnson B. S. Waidner Isabel In the discarded opening section of Albert Angelo (1964), recovered by Jonathan Coe in his biography of B. S. Johnson, the narrator laments how “God had made another ballsup”: the protagonist’s “other half” is “almost a man instead of wholly a woman”. This essay reads Johnson’s abandoned representation of same-sex desire through the “tradition of queer backwardness” traced by Heather Love in Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History (2007). I argue that the abandoned fragment’s representation of “an unspeakable, inexplicable knowing” between two characters evokes the “backward feelings” which Love proposes are tied to “the historical ‘impossibility’ of same-sex desire” (Love 2007). In doing so, I show how Johnson’s literary afterlife lies in orientating readers to modernity’s denigrated “others”, such as sexual deviants marginalized for refusing to take what Johnson calls the “normal way”. Where the backward feelings in Johnson’s experimental novel illuminate his work’s resistance to various conditions of modern subjecthood, they can equally help us understand the resonance between his work and recent innovative fiction, which also contests punitive forms of social normalization. Isabel Waidner’s “critically British novel”, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff (2019), for example, reanimates Johnson’s perverse character “House Mother Normal” to propel its critique of the inequities of class, queerness, and national identity. We can appreciate what remains most subversive about Johnson’s experimental novels by charting how their backwardness reverberates with the concerns of queer experimental literature in the present. Dans la première section rejetée d'Albert Angelo (1964), retrouvée par Jonathan Coe dans sa biographie de B. S. Johnson, le narrateur se lamente sur le fait que « Dieu a fait une autre connerie » : l'autre moitié du protagoniste est « presque un homme au lieu d'être entièrement une femme ». Cet article étudie la représentation abandonnée par Johnson du désir homosexuel à travers la « tradition du sous-développement ou retard [backwardness] queer » décrite par Heather Love dans Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History (2007). Je démontre que la représentation dans le fragment abandonné d'un « savoir indicible et inexplicable » entre deux personnages évoque les « sentiments sous-développés » qui, selon Love, sont liés à « la prétendue ‘impossibilité’ historique du désir homosexuel » (Love 2007). Ce faisant, je montre comment l’après-vie littéraire de Johnson consiste à orienter les lecteurs vers les « autres » déconsidéré.e.s du monde moderne, comme les déviants sexuels marginalisés pour avoir refusé de suivre ce que Johnson appelle la « voie normale ». Si les sentiments d'arriération ou de sous-développement dans le roman expérimental de Johnson mettent en lumière la résistance de son œuvre à diverses conditions de la subjectivité moderne, ils peuvent également nous aider à comprendre les échos entre son œuvre et la fiction innovante la plus récente qui conteste également les formes punitives de normalisation sociale. Le « roman critique britannique » d’Isabel Waidner, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff (2019), par exemple, fait revivre le personnage pervers de Johnson, « House Mother Normal », pour alimenter sa critique des inégalités de classe, de l'homosexualité et de l'identité nationale. Pour appréhender ce qui reste le plus subversif dans les romans expérimentaux de Johnson, on peut tracer la manière dont leur sous-développement est en résonance avec les préoccupations de la littérature expérimentale queer d’aujourd’hui. |