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dc.contributor.advisorDillon, Sarah
dc.contributor.authorDavies, Ben
dc.coverage.spatialix + 239en_US
dc.date.accessioned2012-05-03T11:29:38Z
dc.date.available2012-05-03T11:29:38Z
dc.date.issued2011-08-23
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/2582
dc.description.abstractThis thesis provides a theory of exceptional sex through close readings of contemporary novels by male British and American writers. I take as my overriding methodological approach Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the state of exception, which is a juridico-political state in which the law has been suspended and the difference between rule and transgression is indistinguishable. Within this state, the spatiotemporal markers inside and outside also become indeterminable, making it impossible to tell whether one is inside or outside time and space. Using this framework, I work through narratives of sexual interaction – On Chesil Beach, Gertrude and Claudius, Sabbath’s Theater, and The Act of Love – to conceptualise categories of sexual exceptionality. My study is not a survey, and the texts have been chosen as they focus on different sexual behaviours, thereby opening up a variety of sexual exceptionalities. I concentrate on male writers and narratives of heterosexual sex as most work on sex, time and space is comprised of feminist readings of literature by women and queer work on gay, lesbian or trans writers and narratives. However, in the Coda I expand my argument by turning to Emma Donoghue’s Room, which, as the protagonist has been trapped for the first five years of his life, provides a tabula rasa’s perspective of exceptionality. Through my analysis of exceptionality, I provide spatiotemporal readings of the hymen, incest, adultery, sexual listening and the arranged affair. I also conceptualise textual exceptionalities – the incestuous prequel, auricular reading and the positionality of the narrator, the reader and literary characters. Exceptional sex challenges the assumption in recent queer theory that to be out of time is ‘queer’ and to be in time is ‘straight’. Furthermore, exceptionality complicates the concepts of perversion and transgression as the norm and its transgression become indistinct in the state of exception. In contrast, exceptionality offers a new, more determinate way to analyse narratives of sex.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of St Andrews
dc.subjectSexen_US
dc.subjectTimeen_US
dc.subjectSpaceen_US
dc.subjectContemporary literatureen_US
dc.subjectGiorgio Agamben (1942-)en_US
dc.subjectState of exceptionen_US
dc.subjectEmma Donoghue (1969-). Room (2010)en_US
dc.subjectHoward Jacobson (1942-). The act of love (2008)en_US
dc.subjectIan McEwan (1948-). On Chesil Beach (2007)en_US
dc.subjectPhilip Roth (1933-). Sabbath's theater (1995)en_US
dc.subjectJohn Updike (1932-2009). Gertrude and Claudius (2000)en_US
dc.subject.lccPN56.S5D2E8
dc.subject.lcshSex in literatureen_US
dc.subject.lcshTime in literatureen_US
dc.subject.lcshSpace in literatureen_US
dc.subject.lcshAmerican fiction--Male authors--History and criticismen_US
dc.subject.lcshEnglish fiction--Male authors--History and criticismen_US
dc.subject.lcshScottish fiction--Male authors--History and criticismen_US
dc.subject.lcshMcEwan, Ian. On Chesil Beachen_US
dc.subject.lcshUpdike, John. Gertrude and Claudiusen_US
dc.subject.lcshRoth, Philip. Sabbath's theateren_US
dc.subject.lcshJacobson, Howard. Act of loveen_US
dc.subject.lcshDonoghue, Emma. Roomen_US
dc.titleExceptional intercourse : sex, time and space in contemporary novels by male British and American writersen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen_US
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD Doctor of Philosophyen_US
dc.publisher.institutionThe University of St Andrewsen_US
dc.rights.embargoreasonEmbargo period has ended, thesis made available in accordance with University regulationsen_US


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