{"product_id":"chances-are-contingency-queer-theory-and-american-literature","title":"Chances Are","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis innovative work makes use of psychoanalytic, queer, and narrative theories to read nineteenth and twentieth-century American literature and demonstrate how the concept of contingency—whether chance, accident, luck, or mutation—enriches our understanding of how queer sexualities are articulated. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePerhaps love always carries an element of contingency (our attraction to a particular person can be arbitrary and inexplicable), and a sense of necessity (we find that we cannot imagine life without them). But contingency and chance mean something different for queer subjects. In a heteronormative culture, heterosexuality claims to be necessary \u003ci\u003e(it must be\u003c\/i\u003e), whereas homosexuality \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003enot only \u003ci\u003ecould\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003ebe otherwise,\u003c\/i\u003e but perhaps it \u003ci\u003eshould\u003c\/i\u003e be otherwise, and probably it should not be at all. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis book \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eoutlines why and how issues of chance and contingency should matter to queer theory and queer literary studies. Combining psychoanalytic, queer, and narrative theories, \u003ci\u003eChances Are \u003c\/i\u003econsiders nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literary texts that formally or thematically involve contingencies of their own, including narrative coincidences and accidents, the role of luck in notions of race and class, and efforts to imagine queer hermeneutic methods that make space for contingency. Literary texts include Edgar Allan Poe’s \"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt\" (1842), Horatio Alger’s \u003ci\u003eRagged Dick\u003c\/i\u003e novels (1868-69), Frank Norris’s \u003ci\u003eThe Pit\u003c\/i\u003e (1903) and Edith Wharton’s\u003ci\u003e The House of Mirth\u003c\/i\u003e (1905), Frances E.W. Harper's \u003ci\u003eIola Leroy \u003c\/i\u003e(1892) and Nella Larsen's \u003ci\u003ePassing\u003c\/i\u003e (1929), H.D.'s \u003ci\u003eTribute to Freud\u003c\/i\u003e (1956), and Alison Bechdel's \u003ci\u003eAre You My Mother\u003c\/i\u003e (2012). \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis dynamic and original text would be suitable for students and researchers in literary studies, critical theory and women’s and gender studies.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54185398501720,"sku":null,"price":56.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781138290600.jpg?v=1778567464","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/chances-are-contingency-queer-theory-and-american-literature","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}