Fighting narrative with narrative: the reconstruction of presence in Djuna Barnes's Nightwood
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2018
:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101014
Djuna Barnes's Nightwood depicts a series of characters struggling to make sense of their own identities through their relationships. Where her novel differs from the traditional queer or modernist work is in its investigation of the social structures that uphold the imperial normativity that would cause marginalized characters such as hers to struggle as they do. By presenting language as the foundation upon which these characters try (and fail) to reconcile their identities within or against the dominant culture, Barnes challenges the Western systems of signification that delineate the boundaries of social identity. Ultimately, this thesis argues that by the end of the novel, in working to engage with these marginalized characters, despite never quite achieving clarity of comprehension, the reader is granted an embodied rendering of the torment inherent in the desire for language to speak to experiences that exist outside of dominant narratives.
- Fighting narrative with narrative
- Eleni O'Flarity
- Jon Hegglund (Degree Supervisor)
- Washington State University
- English, Department of
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- 99900525152701842
- English
- Thesis