#subtext in literature

[m-c-easton]

Book Picks: The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

**Triggering Content (child abuse) Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award (yes, people, I’m still catching up on early pandemic booklists), Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ novel The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois has given us an immensely rich novel, one that hooked me with the depth and drama of a Black family spanning the history of America. The structure is complex, opening most of the eleven…

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#Ailey Garfield #Bernardine Evaristo #Black and Indigenous history #child abuse in literature #Daphne du Maurier #Douglas Sirk #feminist fiction #Girl Woman Other #Honorée Fanonne Jeffers #intergenerational trauma #National Book Award longlist #Robert Jones Jr. #slavery in the United States #subtext in literature #Tayari Jones #The Bluest Eye #The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois #Todd Haynes #Toni Morrison #United States history

[sheridoodle]

as Dracula Daily and @re-dracula come to a close this year, I’m getting flashbacks to senior year of HS as I anticipate the phrase “Seward and Goodalming are both happily married” once more

#dracula daily #re: dracula #ap literature #queer subtext #morward #jonmina #t4t jonmina #holmward

[mrmousetolliver]

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder (1945) by Evelyn Waugh

#classic #style #gay artist #gay writer #gay literature #gay subtext #evelyn waugh #brideshead revisited

[percheduphere]

Hey! At first, I want to say that really adore your essays. I found your blog shortly after I joined tumblr and it was a great beginning.

My question is not only about Loki. Few times you mentioned that queer subtext always existed in cinema. So I wanted to know more about it. Are there any common tricks which artists use? How can we know that it isn't just our imagination?

And if you could give some literature recommendations on this topic I'd be thrilled :)

Hi Anon! 

This is a really important question. I’m so glad you asked it, so I’ve bumped you to the front of my inbox queue.  

Superhell (Destiel). Superheaven (Aziracrow). Supertime (Lokius). It’s not an accident these types of tragic queer endings are a pattern in our TV media. Though of the three, Good Omens is the most likely to deliver a happy ending eventually, the resources I provide below contextualize why queer subtext and queer tragedy persists. I believe the paper on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a particularly important read as it sheds light on tragic queer tropes and utilization of queer subtext from the 1950s that persist to this day. 

I do need to clarify a few things: 

1.) I’m not a formal scholar. I don’t have a Master’s, let alone a PhD. I would love to continue my education, but I only just finished paying off my student loans. This is to say, most of what I’ve learned is from self-guided reading, watching documentaries, and talking to literary and cinematic professionals and members of the LGBTQAI+ community. 

2.) Subtext exists in all forms of art: literature, music, painting, sculptures, film, and so on. There is no 1-to-1 definition of what subtext could be because subtext, by its very definition, is the communicating of information and/or a feeling without communicating it directly. It’s also important to remember that we use subtext in everyday life without realizing it.  

3.) It’s necessary to share foundational resources in order to provide a greater contextual understanding in response to your question. The resources I'll be sharing, which will go from broad foundational to specifically queer subtext in cinema, are as follows: A.) Using JSTOR, B.) Linguistics & Subtext, C.) Film History, D.) Queer Subtext in Literature, Theater, and Film. 

USING JSTOR 

JSTOR is an incredible academic journal article resource. You can sign-up as a user and have access to up to 100 articles per month online for free! If you don’t feel comfortable creating an account, you can also visit your local library, who more likely than not have a JSTOR membership. 

When searching for articles, I recommend using these keywords: queer, homosexuality, subtext, literature, film, history. 

LINGUISTICS & SUBTEXT 

Pragmatics 

-- Jerome Bruner’s “Pragmatics of Language and Language of Pragmatics” (Available on JSTOR; Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press) 

-- Kristin Borjesson’s “The Semantics-Pragmatics Interface: The Role of Speak Intentions and Nature of Implicit Meaning Aspects” (Available on JSTOR; Published by Armand Colin) 

Iceberg Theory and Theory of Omission 

-- Silvia Ammary’s “Poe’s ‘Theory of Omission” and Hemingway’s ‘Unity Effect’” (Available on JSTOR; Published in the Edgar Allan Poe Review) 

-- Charles J. Nolan, Jr’s “‘Out of Season’: The Importance of Close Reading’” (Available on JSTOR; Published in the Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature) 

-- Paul Smith’s “Hemingway’s Early Manuscripts: The Theory and Practice of Omission” (Available on JSTOR; Published by Journal of Modern Literature) 

Implicature 

-- Catherine Abell’s “Pictorial Implicature” (An important read as it provides academic context on interpretation of the visual medium, which is connected to interpretation of film; Available on JSTOR; Published by The American Society for Aesthetics) 

-- Eric Swanson’s “Omissive Implicature” (Linguistic study on implied communication through omission) Available on JSTOR; Published by University of Arkansas Press) 

-- Jacques Moeshcler’s “On the Pragmatics of Logical Connectives” (Published in the book: “Aspects of Linguistic Variation) 

Exformation 

-- David Foster Wallace’s “Laughing with Kafka” (Yes, the same writer of the book, Infinite Jest! A quick 4-page read that explains exformation in literature using Kafka as an example; Available on JSTOR; Published in Log by Anyone Corporation) 

-- Stephen J. Burn’s “Reading the Multiple Drafts Novel” (23 pages; can be a slog to read, but it addresses the issues of “canon”; Available on JSTOR; Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press) 

FILM HISTORY 

Generally, I recommend looking up Hollywood History pre-code (Hays Code aka the Motion Picture Production Code from 1930-1967). Notice that the code’s abandonment was gradual in the 60s, which was when the U.S.’s sexual revolution occured. The MPAA Film Rating System went into effect in 1968.  

Sin if Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood by Mark A. Vieira 

Available in hard cover on Amazon (looks like there’s only 1 copy left); no digital version that I can find. You may be able to find this at your library. 

Forbidden Hollywood: The Pre-Code Era (1930-1934): When Sin Rules the Movies by Mark A. Vieira 

Available on Kindle. Similar to Vieira’s first book but considered inferior.  

The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies by Vito Russo 

Published in the 1980s, a groundbreaking work and the first of its kind. It’s dated but still considered critical reading. 

Screening the Sexes: Homosexuality in the Movies by Parker Tyler 

Available in hardcover and paperback. This is also considered critical reading to be paired with Celluloid Closet. 

Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video by Raymond Murray 

Available in paperback on Amazon (1 copy left); likely to be in the library as well. 

QUEER SUBTEXT IN LITERATURE, THEATER, AND FILM 

Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans through Homoerotic Possibilities 

The first book of its kind, published in 2019. A must-read as contributing articles include analysis on Supernatural, Sherlock, and Merlin, among many others. I highly recommend reading the entire book, but it is expensive. You may be able to find this at your library.  

My recommended articles from this book: 

-- Joseph Brenann’s “Introduction: A History of Queerbaiting” is critical to understanding the Loki series specific place in queer fandom and media history. 

-- Monique Franklin’s “Queerbaiting, Queer Readings, and Heteronormative Viewing Practices” 

-- Guillaume Sirois’s “Hollywood Queerbaiting and the (In)Visibility of Same-Sex Desire

-- Christoferr Bagger’s “Multiversal Queerbaiting: Alan Scott, Alternate Universes, and Gay Characters in Superhero Comics” 

Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World 

About half the price of Queerbaiting and Fandom but significantly more broad in scope. 

My recommended articles from this book: 

-- Cornel Sandvoss’s The Death of the Reader? Literary Theory and the Study of Texts in Popular Culture 

-- Derek Johnson’s “Fantagonism: Factions, Institutions, Constitutive Hegemonies of Fandom” 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Reading of epic poem recommended) 

-- David L. Boyd’s “Sodomy, Misogyny, and Displacement: Occluding Queer Desire in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (available on JSTOR; from Arthuriana published by Scriptorium Press) 

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (Reading the novel recommended) 

-- Jeff Nunokawa’s “Homosexual Desire and the Effacement of the Self in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’” (available on JSTOR; Published by The Johns Hopkins University) 

-- Ed Cohen’s “Writing Gone Wilde: Homoerotic Desire in the Closet of Representation” (available on JSTOR; Published by Cambridge University Press) 

-- Sandra Mayer’s “‘A Complex Multiform Creature’: Ambiguity and Limitation Foreshadowed in the Early Critical Reception of Oscar Wilde” (available on JSTOR; Published in AAA: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik) 

Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Reading the short story [“Three Players of a Summer Game” and stage play and watching the film adaptation highly recommended) 

-- Dean Shackelford’s “The Truth That Must Be Told: Gay Subjectivity, Homophobia, and Social History in “‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’”. (A must-read, in my opinion. You see a lot of patterns that continue in our subtextual queer stories to this day, concerning since Williams’s play was written in the early 1950s. Available on JSTOR; published in The Tennessee Williams Annual Review) 

I hope these resources are helpful and interesting to you! Happy reading! 

#loki #mobius #lokius #loki series #queer literature #queer media #queer representation #linguistics #subtext #queer film #lgbt representation #lgbtqia representation #lgtbqia+ #lgbtq community #asks #literary resources #film resources #Good Omens #Supernatural #aziracrow #Destiel #my meta #meta tools #meta resources #bisexuality

[differentluminaryllama]

Books and a cup of tea (Part 5): The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This book is beautiful. The plot is intriguing - in a deliciously horrifying way - I mean, just imagine: being invited to a haunted house to investigate paranormal activities and being excited because it's the first thing you really do on your own after being a caretaker for 11 years (and thus the better part of your adulthood), but then arriving at this unsettling house where something is just off. But it's alright, because you fit in with all the others, who also all stay over the summer to explore the house and check for any supernatural activities. You feel like you belong. And then, the hauntings begin in Hill House, leaving you desperately shaken and afraid. But at the same time, you just can't imagine leaving, as you slowly feel the house taking over your mind...

I love everything about this. Hill House with its weird, unsettling architecture, the fact that the readers can't really be sure if some of the paranormal phenomenons actually happen because Nell has a very vivid imagination. The sapphic undertones/homoerotic subtext between Nell and Theodora (... although honestly, is it subtext, or is it simply Nell being sapphic? I mean, she's simply smitten with Theo - she wants to move in with her after knowing her for a week!) The exquisite writing style. Nell's wholesome day dreams before she loses her mind.

I just love this book.

#books and reading #the haunting of hill house #eleanor vance #Theodora #shirley jackson #gothic horror #gothic literature #sapphic subtext

[newsunss]

Uhhh Carmilla and Laura aren’t queer-coded, they are explicitly and obviously queer. It’s not in code it’s in giant bright red billboard letters.

#Carmilla #‘the lesbian subtext’ bro it’s. not subtle #this is isn’t the elevator scene in great gatsby #gothic literature #Carmilla novel #joseph sheridan le fanu

[spocks-got-a-glock]

CW - pederasty/ped0philia

Knowing how common pederasty was in upper class gay male circles in the late 19th and early 20th century sometimes makes it difficult for me to enjoy queer classic literature. I love Oscar Wilde for many of his qualities and his work but the knowledge that he had (often dubiously or non consensual) s*xual encounters with multiple teenage boys puts a sick feeling in my stomach that mars my relationship with his work and him as a significant figure in queer history and gay liberation. There's only so much that historical relativism can excuse. This is a dark element in our (queer) history that I've been avoiding acknowledging because it seems like we already have so little surviving history to root ourselves in, but I can't ignore it anymore. It's eating away at me. Is anyone else wrestling with this?

Some sources and some further clarification under the cut.

Here is - far from the only but a useful and accessible - source about Oscar Wilde's behaviour. I use him as a well known example of the presence of this ideology (often but not always linked with uranianism and heavily inspired by the pederastic relationships of ancient Greece) in gay male culture in this era, but unfortunately it runs deeper than simply a bad apple.

And here is the wiki page on the uranian movement (including as one of its proponents, notably, Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas).

#queer history #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq history #classic literature #queer classic literature #queer subtext #oscar wilde

[tart-miano]

i love you remakes that aren't actually remakes but are AUs in disguise where the characters choose to be kind and save all the people they couldn't in the original version, i love you sequels about the old main characters' children who are parallels to their parents and they learn from their parents' mistakes in order to solve their own problems for the betterment of themselves and the people/world around them, i love you retellings of old stories where the original subtext is expanded upon thoroughly and characters- who f.e had hidden feelings- express their innermost selves to the ones they love and are happier for it, i love you remakes that take the subtle moments of homoromantic tension between certain characters and turn it into a beautiful thriving relationship in canon, i love y-

#im so sorry i have so many feelings after finishing tokyo mew mew new and i am inconsolable #remakes #sequels #literature tumblr #bookblr #anime remakes #fanfic #happy ending au #next generation stories #character tropes #gay subtext #i love you meme

[see-arcane]

Somewhere in the Bureau of Increasingly Less Faithful Dracula Adaptations

Directors 1-60: Look, Mina clearly needs to be the sexy vampire bait-heroine in the next every one. She’s her era’s modern woman! She’ll appeal to all the wistful nerd chicks in the audience when we have her drop that Victorian snore Jonathan and pair her with Dracula!

Directors 61-99: Please, Mina’s old news. The real spotlight belongs to the original man harem juggler, Lucy. Everyone knows from the movies and shows that she 1) Is the hot one, 2) Brings all the dudes to the yard, and 3) Has plenty of potential for unfulfilled bisexy goings-on with Mina and Dracula. (Cannot stress enough that the Mina stuff stay unfulfilled, though.) If anyone’s the Babe-for-Bloodsuckers damsel protagonist, it’s Lucy!

Director 100: ...Shouldn’t it be Jonathan? 

Directors 1-99: what

Director 100: I mean, in both Dracula and the cut prologue, “Dracula’s Guest,” Jonathan Harker gets sought out by the most lusty/bloodlusting vampires, period. In “Dracula’s Guest,” he gets approached by a vampire woman in a tomb, then an entire graveyard full of eager vampires in a storm, all of whom he was only shielded from because Dracula was stalking him in his giant wolf form and literally laid on top of him as protection while he howled to get the villagers’ attention. Then he left after tasting Jonathan’s neck. 

When Jonathan finally gets to the castle in the novel itself, Dracula destroys his personal space and imprisons him outright, full gothic heroine style, and at one point undresses and redresses Jonathan while he’s unconscious--after rescuing him from the three vampire girlfriends who hypnotize and try to take turns preying on the guy, which they and the Count go out of their way to call ‘kissing’ him. With the latter setup being only the first of multiple attempts from the ladies. 

Point being, if anybody should get acknowledged as the resident vampire magnet and damsel in distress with unwanted toothy intimacy issues in a new adaptation, it should be Jonathan Harker. 

Directors 1-99: ...

Director 100: ...

Directors 1-99: We always figured him and Dracula were just good friends

#Frustrated? Who's frustrated?? Not me! -- lied every person to ever read the fucking novel #we could wring a whole movie out of filling in Jonathan's written AND unwritten time with Dracula at the start of the story #it's really its own genre compared to the gothic-adventure vibe of the rest of the novel #but I know we're never going to get it #any more than we'll ever get Mina and Jonathan being the power couple #or Mina and Lucy getting to drop the subtext #or even Lucy and her suitors daring to love each other in whole #there is SO MUCH to be mined in a modern cinematic take without the restraints of chokehold subtext for the whole cast #but I won't hold my breath #-curses in dusty old literature fan- #anyway #spoilers #(that are over a century old but there you go) #dracula #jonathan harker #mina murray #mina harker #lucy westenra #dracula's guest

[lioncunt]

assuming you’re a fujoshi if you unironically liked interview with a vampire tbh

this is the funniest sentence i’ve ever read, imagine being like “assuming you’re a fujoshi if you unironically liked the picture of dorian gray”

#ask #anonymous #if you enjoy analyzing gay subtext in critically acclaimed gothic literature you fetishize gay anime characters

[inkykeiji]

No fr, I saw Hazbin fans on TT who ACTUALLY THOUGHT Alastor's last name was "Altruist". Like. They didn't comprehend it was a word he was mockingly attaching to his name after his performance in the finale.

oh my good god. once again i say, the media literacy (and possibly literacy, period) is buried beneath the ground like...that’s actually concerning. unless they were young teenagers who just didn’t know what the word meant,, tho idk if young teenagers should necessarily be watching hazbin but that’s a different conversation for a different time.

#in my short time in the hazbin fandom i have seem some really wild takes and interpretations #and most of them are just straight up wrong. like;;; not the interpretations or the personal opinions—everyone is allowed to have those ofc #and that's valid. #but i mean like saying stuff that is FACTUALLY wrong #because you know;; there's the facts of the text itself and then there's the bits left up to the viewer's interpretation #but anyway #i'm not gonna get into that hahaha #i just rly do think the inability to close read and the lack of analytical skills is very concerning #you *should be* taught how to close read in high school literature classes #i'm not american so i don't know just how awful their school system currently is #but i know that when i was in high school we were taught how to close read and pull apart nuance and subtext and form our own opinions base #on that; on the material itself. and how to argue and back up our points #not that anyone necessarily needs anything THAT SERIOUS in fandom but like just the general skill of close reading #the fact that so many people lack it is justttttt a lil scary idk #i'm rambling now i've been having this conversation with several friends over the past week #it's just baffling #ANYYYYYWAYYY #hope ur having a great friday anon!!! <3 #pls enjoy ur weekend and stay safe c: love u lots! #inky.bb #clari gets mail

[howifeltabouthim]

I feel that there's something wrong with what you've told me, that there's something hidden behind what you say. It makes me uneasy.

Siri Hustvedt, from The Blindfold

#left unsaid #subtext #omission #concealed #liar #uneasy #dialogue #talking #conversation #quotes #lit #words #excerpts #quote #literature #hiding something #secrets of his own #siri hustvedt #the blindfold

[mrmousetolliver]

Mrs. Dalloway (1925) written by Virginia Woolf.

#classic #style #gay #gay artist #gay subtext #mrs dalloway #virginia woolf #lgbt literature #gay literature

[sisigull]

In my semi-hiatus era bc of exams, don’t worry I’m coming back soon 🤪

Oh yeah update, I might’ve flopped my Brit lit exams and I did try to add gay subtext to my LotF+Twelfth Night essay (both are queer imo) but that’s hard to do bc the teacher’s forcing us to do this wack ass format that sucks.

#sisigull rambles yet again #lord of the flies #lotf #twelfth night #queer #gay subtext #like these two can be seen as queer #esp twelfth night #which deals with viola dressing as a man #and Olivia falling in love with viola #viola and Olivia should run away together and kiss #bc orsino kinda sucks #british literature #exams #exam season #yipeee

[hazmatazz]

if it were a book i would have memorized stranger things cover to cover. unfortunately it's a tv show and i cannot sit still for hour long episodes

#stranger things #babble #complaining #love it tho i love that it's film because subtext and shit in film is sooo much different than literature and st makes it work <3<3<3

[moriarty1234]

T*LC Refutation (but decidedly NOT johnlock refutation)

Part - 3 : Everything wrong with their versions of the words "subtext" and "symbolism".

[Note: I love and ship johnlock because I saw it for myself in the show when I watched it and was part of the general audience in the past. I even want it to become canon in some Holmes adaption in the future. But T*lc needs to get sucked into obscurity and forgotten. Other fandoms like Good Omens, etc., are following the same rhetoric in their "meta" posts, and that needs to go. This is crucial for our basic critical thinking skills and objectivity.]

Now, let's discuss about the two things t*lcers talk about the most in their posts: Subtext and Symbolism.

a.) Subtext:

Real definition of subtext: Subtext is implied text in the simplest words. Meaning, something needs to be there in the plain text for the viewer to be led to the subtextual implications of the said plain text.

This means the plain text gets the main priority all the time out of the two.

Fake (t*lc) version of the definition of subtext: An element that tells a brand new story in the background, which only a handful of people in a large audience can pick up on because they're the *experts* and everyone else is a "casual". Plain text is useless and it can burn in the trash. (though only when the plain text doesn't support t*lc).

Read this article on the hierarchy of evidence, and feel free to throw it at anyone who claims to know about something for sure, just because they're the expert in that field, next time. Huge thanks to Kim for sending me this link and discussing the whole thing with me.

Expert opinion is literally at the bottom. It doesn't count as anything if you want your college paper to get approved.

You should know that much, if you're such an expert. :P

b.) Symbolism:

In the simplest words, symbolism is the idea that things represent other things. It is used in fictional stories all the time to enhance the writing style, and to urge the audience to think deeper.

But here's the thing: "Enhance" is the key word here. You cannot tell an entire story only through symbolisms. Symbolisms and subtext are only used to highlight what's already there in the plain text.

Everyone outside the t*lc echo-chamber knows that the general audience makes up for the majority of the entire audience. Their interpretations about the source material are important. Most people aren't going to keep an eye on every single molecule of their screens on which they watch the show. And writers do need their stories to come across. If they kept narrating everything through only obscure codes and symbolisms, nobody is going to get the story. Their entire efforts would be useless.

Moreover, t*lcers don't seem to understand the difference between symbolisms and allegories, as my brilliant friend Kim pointed out.

The key difference here is that allegories are the ones that tend to have a fixed meaning in the story, when they're meant to represent something abstract.

Symbolisms, on the other hand, tend to be arbitrary in their meanings. Take the colour pink, for example. It used to represent masculinity in the Roman times. Look how the times changed, and it has become the epitome of femininity now!

Here's a more insightful take from How to Read Literature Like a Professor (a book one of the t*lc people themselves rec'ed. Apparently they cherry-picked here too) :

If something such as symbolism is so arbitrary that its meaning changes from time to time, and from person to person (indovidual opinions), do you really think it is reliable to tell an entire story? No.

That's why the literary device "symbolism" is just used to enhance what the general audience can already see in the plain text.

Most of the symbolisms these people come up with in their meta posts are not even real. They just experience patternicity and think they've figured everything out. They really haven't. And in the name of sources, they just say, "Read my meta!", or "Here, read my friend's meta," or provide any other incredibly unreliable and cherry-picked links.

Why would anyone read your meta when it's clear what you wrote is obviously coming from some sort of bias? You guys are not even consistent in your theories half of the time.

You don't even know the difference between symbolisms and allegories, or even the true meaning of subtext, given how much you keep claiming to be experts in literature and cinema.

Pulling claims out of thin air that BBC Sherlock is a slow-burn romance because the BBC station asked Moffat and Gatiss to do that, etc., doesn't help anything.

Mind you, I would've made this post even if johnlock had become canon in BBC Sherlock. A logical fallacy is still a logical fallacy, even though someone might come to the correct conclusion through it accidentally.

That's why most of the t*lc style meta posts feel weird and off-putting, even though they might look clever on the surface, because they usually tend to use a lot of fancy words.

Part-2: What's wrong with their actual meta posts?

Parts- 4 and 5: Harmful aspects of T*LC (4) and Conclusion (5).

T*LC refutation (but NOT johnlock refutation) master post.

#anti tjlc #anti mofftiss #anti moffat #anti bbc sherlock #sherlock holmes #we care about science and sherlock holmes in general #subtext #symbolism #literature #fandom meta