Dying Protagonists in Two Gay Southern Novels: Randall Kenan’s A Visitation of Spirits and Jim Grimsley’s Dream Boy

The present article explores two southern novels, Randall Kenan’s A Visitation of Spirits (1989) and Jim Grimsley’s Dream Boy (1995). These two novels are at first sight a deviation from the contemporary tradition of coming-out (i.e., gay coming-of-age) novels, as their teenage protagonists do not successfully develop a proud gay identity but die a violent death, by suicide and murder, respectively. However, a closer exploration of the texts themselves as well as the literary context will also reveal that even though both novels do constitute a departure from the previous tradition of gay coming-of-age novels by their extensive use of Gothic elements, they still contain a plausible story portraying the interplay of the social and psychological facets of growing up

It’s Not All That Money: Class in Jim Grimsley’s Comfort & Joy

Until recently, discussions of class were overshadowed by explorations of race, ethnicity, and gender in American literary and academic circles. One of the modern novels that daringly explores the ramifications of class is Jim Grimsley’s Comfort & Joy (1999), which portrays the budding relationship between two southern men which, to a large degree, is continually undermined by their belonging to different classes. Dan Crell is a hospital administrator, while Ford McKinney is a pediatrician in the same hospital. Moreover, while Dan comes from a low-class North Karolina family, Ford belongs to the Old Savannah aristocratic milieu. Class interferes not only in the men’s relationship with each other but also in their relationships with their families of origin. More important, the novel convincingly demonstrates that class is not only a matter of money but perhaps even more so of culture inbred in the family

Escape from New York in Post-Stonewall Gay Fiction

The chapter explores a paradoxical phenomenon portrayed in gay fiction. Despite the widespread image of gay men coming from rural areas to New York, a substantive portion of gay fiction gives quite an opposite image, that of gays escaping New York. Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance (1978) and Michael Cunningham's A Home at the End of the World (1990) are analyzed in detail.

How To Use a Bookworm: Michael Cart's My Father's Scar as a crossover novel

This paper explores the contestable border between adult and young adult gay (male) fiction published in the United States since the late 1960s. Since the 1990s crossover novels have been published, and Michael Cart's My Father's Scar is an early example of this trend. What makes this novel acceptable both as an adult and young adult title is primarily its use of two alternating narrative lines and the bookworm narrator. Neither technique is original, yet only in the 1990s did they become widely acceptable in gay young-adult fiction

The uses of intertextuality in gay young adult literature

The authors of American young adult literature regularly make extensive intentional use of intertextuality in many forms, mainly as allusions to other texts, such as literary works, songs, and movies. The paper explores the various uses of intertextuality in three young adult novels: Sandra Scoppettone's Trying Hard to Hear You (1974), Larry Duplechan's Blackbird (1986), and Michael Cart's My Father's Scar (1996). It explores three main uses of intentional intertextuality: defining the setting (including the creation of an atmosphere), characterizing the protagonists, and fighting or endorsing another text. A hypothesis is proposed that these uses of intertextuality allow young readers a better connection with the novels and identification with their characters

It's not all that money: Class in Jim Grimsley's Comfort & Joy

Until recently, discussions of class were overshadowed by explorations of race, ethnicity, and gender in American literary and academic circles. One of the modern novels that daringly explores the ramifications of class is Jim Grimsley's Comfort & Joy (1999), which portrays the budding relationship between two southern men which, to a large degree, is continually undermined by their belonging to different classes. Dan Crell is a hospital administrator, while Ford McKinney is a pediatrician in the same hospital. Moreover, while Dan comes from a low-class North Carolina family, Ford belongs to the Old Savannah aristocratic milieu. Class interferes not only in the men's relationship with each other but also in their relationships with their families of origin. More important, the novel convincingly demonstrates that class is not only a matter of money but perhaps even more so of culture inbred in the family

Dying Protagonists in Two Gay Southern Novels: Randall Kenan’s A Visitation of Spirits and Jim Grimsley’s Dream Boy

The present article explores two southern novels, Randall Kenan’s A Visitation of Spirits (1989) and Jim Grimsley’s Dream Boy (1995). These two novels are at first sight a deviation from the contemporary tradition of coming-out (i.e., gay coming-of-age) novels, as their teenage protagonists do not successfully develop a proud gay identity but die a violent death, by suicide and murder, respectively. However, a closer exploration of the texts themselves as well as the literary context will also reveal that even though both novels do constitute a departure from the previous tradition of gay coming-of-age novels by their extensive use of Gothic elements, they still contain a plausible story portraying the interplay of the social and psychological facets of growing up

Christopher Isherwood: A Major Model for the Margin?

The present article explores the fact that Christopher Isherwood, an author who was an American citizen for almost half of his life and who wrote his masterpiece, A Single Man (1964), as an American writer, is excluded from mainstream histories of American literature. The article reviews primarily sources on American gay literature that establish Isherwood as one of the major formative figures of the twentieth-century gay novel. It concludes that in the age of authors coming from the margin to the center, the mainstream histories of American literature paradoxically seem to have pushed a major author to the margin of literary life

Jim Grimsley's dream boy as an insight into male teenage same-sex desire in the American South

The article discusses two opposing interpretations of Jim Grimsley's novel Dream Boy (1995), a "southern" one and a "gay" one. Because of the ambiguities of the novel, the story of two teenagers, Nathan and Roy, can be considered primarily in its southern setting and understood as an insight into same-sex desire in the South, which often exists outside the categories of gay identity. At the same time, it can be seen as just another coming-out story, this time one set in a rural area and ending prematurely with the violent death of the main protagonist. While the author of the article would subscribe to a "gay" interpretation, he admits that the "southern" interpretation, suggested by Grimsley, may provide a valuable insight into same-sex desire in the American South

Memories of Child Abuse in Jim Grimsley's Dan Crell Trilogy

Esej se zabývá tématem zneužívání dětí v rané tvorbě Jima Grimsleyho, jmenovitě ve třech románech, které jsou někdy známé jako trilogie o Danu Crellovi: Winter Birds, My Drowning a Comfort & Joy. V trilogii jsou identifikovány čtyři formy zneužívání: sexuální, fyzické a emocionální zneužívání a zanedbávání. Mezi důležitá témata románů patří role paměti ve zvládání traumatu ze zneužívání později v dospělosti i vliv zneužívání na dynamiku rodinného života. Autor v jednotlivých románech používá různé narativní situace a techniky, aby prozkoumal způsob, jakým pracuje paměť.The essay explores the theme of child abuse in Jim Grimsley's early fiction, namely in the three novels sometimes known as the Dan Crell trilogy: Winter Birds, My Drowning, and Comfort & Joy. Four forms of abuse can be identified in the trilogy: sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and abuse by neglect. Important themes of the novels include the role of memory in coping with the trauma of child abuse later in adulthood as well as the influence of past abuse on family dynamics. In the individual novels, the author uses various narrative situations and techniques in order to explore the way memory works