Postcolonial unions: the queer national romance in film and literature

In my dissertation I investigate how romance functions both generically and ideologically in texts depicting same-sex unions. I argue that the novels and films in this study use the romantic union as a way of intervening in discussions about what constitutes citizenship. While the national romance has often obscured legitimate conflicts and oversimplified complex political debates, I contend that these queer romances can persuade audiences to re-imagine the nation in new ways. For instance, the film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) allegorizes the nation via a same-sex couple and uses the generic conventions of the romance to position audiences to desire a union between groups in conflict. Consequently, it creates a fantasy of an inclusive kind of citizenship that it presents as possible and appealing. Thus, besides drawing attention to the romance’s political potential, my project contributes a new generic term—the queer national romance—to the lexicon of literary and film studies. The national romance emerged in the eighteenth century as a literary genre in which star-crossed lovers from opposing nations—usually an imperial power and its colony—marry, healing the conflict between their respective communities. I argue that this narrative form found new life in queer postcolonial fiction and film in the late twentieth century. Like traditional national romances these texts solicit affective identification on the part of the spectator and negotiate a specific historical and cultural struggle, conflict, or anxiety about the status of the nation or the identity of the national citizen; but instead of centering on a heterosexual couple these texts focus on same-sex romantic unions. My study is the first to identify the national romance at work in texts depicting same-sex unions, and it illustrates their potential to make space in the national imaginary for queer citizens. Moreover, I am the first to argue that the national romance can work in both politically progressive and reactionary ways. Beyond intervening in literary debates about the national romance, I contribute to a growing body of work that examines the interconnections between nationalism, sexuality, and transnationalism, all the while grounding these theoretical issues in concrete discussions of genres.Englis