Disability and “Chastened Merriment”: Queer Joy in Theodore Winthrop’s Cecil Dreeme
- Author(s):
- Vivian Delchamps (see profile)
- Date:
- 2021
- Group(s):
- 2021 MLA Convention
- Subject(s):
- Critical disability studies, Gender and queer studies, 19th-century American literature
- Item Type:
- Conference paper
- Conf. Title:
- MLA
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/cnnb-af79
- Abstract:
- Theodore Winthrop’s novel Cecil Dreeme, first published after Winthrop died in 1861—is, according to Christopher Looby, quote, “a very queer book indeed,” endquote. Here I argue that the novel offers significant opportunities for study of disability, queer desire, and joy from nineteenth-century America to today. To explore the relationships between queer and crip joy, I focus on a rich scene of oyster eating that follows Cecil Dreeme’s emotional crisis. The scene centers queer intimacy, bodily pleasure, and gastronomical delight, providing relief from the restraints of compulsory able-mindedness and compulsory heterosexuality found elsewhere in the world of the novel. I show that the novel crafts restorative scenes that reaffirm joy for characters who experience mental illnesses that result from marginalizing treatment.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 1 week ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
- Share this:
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