Hiram Pérez
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479818655
- eISBN:
- 9781479846757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479818655.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
Reviewing what became a common critical response to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005) as "not a gay movie," this chapter contests the prevailing reading of Ennis Del Mar as repressed homosexual, ...
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Reviewing what became a common critical response to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005) as "not a gay movie," this chapter contests the prevailing reading of Ennis Del Mar as repressed homosexual, inviting his difference to help open both "gay" and "queer" to new narratives. Ennis's queerness is concentrated unexpectedly in a cowboy ethic; because nationally that ethic is memorialized as heroically masculine, its queerness has dissipated from legend. This chapter restores the queer in cowboy, insisting that we situate Ennis close to home (Wyoming, ranch labor, rural) in order to appreciate his difference. Hence, the chapter challenges a metanarrative for modern gay identity largely founded on migration to metropolitan locales and on gay cosmopolitanism. In contrast to most readings, the chapter uses both Annie Proulx’s story and Lee’s adaptation to critique gay assimilationism and contemporary neoliberal (“homonormative”) gay and lesbian politics.Less
Reviewing what became a common critical response to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005) as "not a gay movie," this chapter contests the prevailing reading of Ennis Del Mar as repressed homosexual, inviting his difference to help open both "gay" and "queer" to new narratives. Ennis's queerness is concentrated unexpectedly in a cowboy ethic; because nationally that ethic is memorialized as heroically masculine, its queerness has dissipated from legend. This chapter restores the queer in cowboy, insisting that we situate Ennis close to home (Wyoming, ranch labor, rural) in order to appreciate his difference. Hence, the chapter challenges a metanarrative for modern gay identity largely founded on migration to metropolitan locales and on gay cosmopolitanism. In contrast to most readings, the chapter uses both Annie Proulx’s story and Lee’s adaptation to critique gay assimilationism and contemporary neoliberal (“homonormative”) gay and lesbian politics.
Hiram Perez
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479818655
- eISBN:
- 9781479846757
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479818655.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
A Taste for Brown Bodies asks what difference race makes in the emergence of gay modernity. The book examines how the romanticization of the “brown body” continues to shape modern gay sensibilities, ...
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A Taste for Brown Bodies asks what difference race makes in the emergence of gay modernity. The book examines how the romanticization of the “brown body” continues to shape modern gay sensibilities, tracing that brown body to the nostalgic imagination of gay cosmopolitanism. In so doing, the book looks in particular to the queer masculinities of three figures: the sailor, the soldier, and the cowboy, themselves proletariat cosmopolitans of sorts. All three of these figures have functioned, officially and unofficially, as cosmopolitan extensions of the US nation-state and as agents for the expansion of its borders and neocolonial zones of influence. The book considers not only how US imperialist expansion was realized but also how it was visualized for and through gay men. US empire not only makes possible certain articulations of gay modernity but also instrumentalizes them. The book argues that certain practices and subjectivities understood historically as forms of homosexuality are regulated and normalized in their service to US empire. By means of an analysis of literature, film, and photographs from the 19th to the 21st centuries—including Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain,” and photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison—the book proposes that modern gay male identity, often traced to late Victorian constructions of “invert” and “homosexual,” occupies not the periphery of the nation but rather a cosmopolitan position, instrumental to projects of war, colonialism, and neoliberalism.Less
A Taste for Brown Bodies asks what difference race makes in the emergence of gay modernity. The book examines how the romanticization of the “brown body” continues to shape modern gay sensibilities, tracing that brown body to the nostalgic imagination of gay cosmopolitanism. In so doing, the book looks in particular to the queer masculinities of three figures: the sailor, the soldier, and the cowboy, themselves proletariat cosmopolitans of sorts. All three of these figures have functioned, officially and unofficially, as cosmopolitan extensions of the US nation-state and as agents for the expansion of its borders and neocolonial zones of influence. The book considers not only how US imperialist expansion was realized but also how it was visualized for and through gay men. US empire not only makes possible certain articulations of gay modernity but also instrumentalizes them. The book argues that certain practices and subjectivities understood historically as forms of homosexuality are regulated and normalized in their service to US empire. By means of an analysis of literature, film, and photographs from the 19th to the 21st centuries—including Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain,” and photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison—the book proposes that modern gay male identity, often traced to late Victorian constructions of “invert” and “homosexual,” occupies not the periphery of the nation but rather a cosmopolitan position, instrumental to projects of war, colonialism, and neoliberalism.
Whitney Crothers Dilley
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231167734
- eISBN:
- 9780231538497
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231167734.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter analyzes Brokeback Mountain (2005). Based on the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain is about the romance between two uneducated farmhands. Throughout 2006, the “gay ...
More
This chapter analyzes Brokeback Mountain (2005). Based on the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain is about the romance between two uneducated farmhands. Throughout 2006, the “gay cowboy story” was both hailed as a vehicle for gay activism and vilified by American conservatives. An initial reading of the narrative through the lens of modern gender theory demonstrates, however, that the story is not overtly political, but rather seeks universality in the experience of human longing for affection and acceptance. This chapter first reviews the history of the representation of homosexuality in mainstream American film before discussing the true-to-life language and idioms used in Brokeback Mountain. It then considers how Brokeback Mountain conjures bittersweet yearning for lost love and lost opportunity, transcending any narrow issues of sexuality or gender, and becomes a more universal love story between two men.Less
This chapter analyzes Brokeback Mountain (2005). Based on the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain is about the romance between two uneducated farmhands. Throughout 2006, the “gay cowboy story” was both hailed as a vehicle for gay activism and vilified by American conservatives. An initial reading of the narrative through the lens of modern gender theory demonstrates, however, that the story is not overtly political, but rather seeks universality in the experience of human longing for affection and acceptance. This chapter first reviews the history of the representation of homosexuality in mainstream American film before discussing the true-to-life language and idioms used in Brokeback Mountain. It then considers how Brokeback Mountain conjures bittersweet yearning for lost love and lost opportunity, transcending any narrow issues of sexuality or gender, and becomes a more universal love story between two men.
Gary Needham
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633821
- eISBN:
- 9780748651252
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633821.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Upon its release in 2005, Brokeback Mountain became a major cultural event and a milestone in independent American filmmaking. Based on the short story by Annie Proulx and directed by Ang Lee, it ...
More
Upon its release in 2005, Brokeback Mountain became a major cultural event and a milestone in independent American filmmaking. Based on the short story by Annie Proulx and directed by Ang Lee, it situated a love story between two closeted cowboys at the heart of American mythology, film spectatorship, and genre. Brokeback Mountain offered an independent and queer revision of the conventions and clichés of the Western and the melodrama through a studied exploration of homophobia and the closet. This book examines the film in relation to indie cinema, genre, spectatorship, editing and homosexuality. In doing so it brings film studies and queer theory into dialogue with one another and explains the importance of Brokeback Mountain as both a contemporary independent and queer film. The book provides an overview of Focus Features as a hybrid company operating across both the mainstream and independent cinema sectors, and proposes a new way of thinking about gay spectatorship that takes into account how editing and cruising relate to one another.Less
Upon its release in 2005, Brokeback Mountain became a major cultural event and a milestone in independent American filmmaking. Based on the short story by Annie Proulx and directed by Ang Lee, it situated a love story between two closeted cowboys at the heart of American mythology, film spectatorship, and genre. Brokeback Mountain offered an independent and queer revision of the conventions and clichés of the Western and the melodrama through a studied exploration of homophobia and the closet. This book examines the film in relation to indie cinema, genre, spectatorship, editing and homosexuality. In doing so it brings film studies and queer theory into dialogue with one another and explains the importance of Brokeback Mountain as both a contemporary independent and queer film. The book provides an overview of Focus Features as a hybrid company operating across both the mainstream and independent cinema sectors, and proposes a new way of thinking about gay spectatorship that takes into account how editing and cruising relate to one another.
