Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

183918

"The sex thing is strange"

the queerness of Barbara Hanrahan's fiction

Damien Barlow

pp. 227-241

Abstract

This chapter explores Barbara Hanrahan's notion that sexuality "can manifest itself in all sorts of ways" disrupts the naturalised binary logic that governs cultural intelligibility about what constitutes "real" sex and what remains unimaginable and unspeakable. It also highlights a preoccupation in her writing with non-normative sexual desires and identities that is akin to the critical concerns of queer epistemologies. The chapter takes Hanrahan's contestation of normative thinking about sexuality as a starting point to critically examine the queerness of her "fantastic novels". By reading Hanrahan's fiction queerly we are offered a valuable critique that challenges the normalising power of heterosexuality and its claims to be the only intelligible and "natural" way to organise desire.

Publication details

Published in:

Das Devaleena, Dasgupta Sanjukta (2017) Claiming space for Australian women's writing. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 227-241

Full citation:

Barlow Damien (2017) „"The sex thing is strange": the queerness of Barbara Hanrahan's fiction“, In: D. Das & S. Dasgupta (eds.), Claiming space for Australian women's writing, Dordrecht, Springer, 227–241.