Publication Date
2021
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Balcerzak, Scott
Degree Name
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
Legacy Department
Department of English
Abstract
This dissertation identifies and analyzes a history of queer politics and identities in British realist cinema from the early 1960s to the 2010s. Focusing primarily on filmmakers Sidney J. Furie, Stephen Frears, Hettie MacDonald, and Andrew Haigh, it traces British queer maleness of the working class by tracking its changing representations and demonstrates how urban cinematic realism proves central to British definitions of masculinity. The first chapter investigates how foundational films of the British New Wave address social inequalities as consequences of class and sexuality to consider how they embraced a sexual frankness and realism with coded and decoded homoeroticism. The second chapter explores the hybridity, fluidity, and contingency of identity construction in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, which were reshaped by contested power relations intertwined with discourses of race, class and gender in ambivalent ways. The third chapter examines the political, cultural, and social environment of Britain in the nineties in relation to masculinity and queer identities of the young men in the era’s cinema. I end my study by examining how Haigh, a post-millennium independent filmmaker, incorporates previous traditions of poetic realism into neoliberal negotiations between his own queer identity as a gay director and his naturalistic portrayal of homonormativity and mundanity. Queer experience, as portrayed in all these films, facilitates ongoing debates around the representation of queer desire, identity, and politics on the British screen.
Recommended Citation
Li, Yi, "Margins of The City: Urban Masculinity and Identity Politics in British Social-Realist Queer Cinema" (2021). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 7367.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/7367
Extent
162 pages
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
Included in
English Language and Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons
