Being at the Centre of a Scandal – Exploring the Complexities of the Sexual Deviant. Queer Counterspaces and their Effect on Character Development and Self-Actualisation in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Giovanni’s Room

Abstract

This thesis addresses literary representations of queerness in public and private places. Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner’s 1998 essay ‘Sex in Public’ addresses the public’s association with sexuality and the idea of counterpublics. This thesis aims to use this idea of counterpublics in association with queer spacing, Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopias, and the concept of the deviant. I specifically aim to use these concepts in a comparative analysis of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, to explore the queer counterspaces in both novels and their effect on both the protagonists and other characters. The spaces in the novels affect different characters in different ways, both positively and negatively, and the way in which the different characters use the spaces to self-actualise, whether consciously or unconsciously, is interesting to look at; especially if we consider that all of the characters possess a certain amount of fear of being labelled as deviants and being at the centre of a scandal. The main aim of this thesis is to highlight the importance of queer spacing in these pieces of literature and bring attention to this larger discussion in queer theory, through the exploration of queer identity made by the means of the queer spaces in novels.