《鹽的代價》之酷兒時間性

Abstract

女同性戀低俗小說(Lesbian pulp fiction)在1950年代的美國被視為一種廉價的娛樂，是一種利用女同之間禁忌關係賺得利潤的低俗故事，但這些書裡也出現女同小說的第一個快樂結局，也就是派翠西亞·海史密斯(Patricia Highsmith)的小說《鹽的代價》(The Price of Salt)。本論文探討時間是如何在這本小說裡作用的，分析卡蘿(Carol)和特芮絲(Therese)如何製造一個不跟異性戀生殖模組(heteroreproductive social script)一樣的未來，造成一種酷兒時間性。

本論文首先探討女同性戀低俗小說常出現的劇情，也解釋《鹽的代價》包含的類似劇情還有小說如何破壞這些用了陳詞濫調的劇情。第二部分分析小說是如何顛覆了冷戰時期對於家庭的思想。最後將會介紹時序正典性(chrononormativity)還有生殖未來主義(reproductive futurism)，以及這些概念是如何在《鹽的代價》出現的。

Lesbian pulp fiction is often remembered as a cheap form of entertainment in which sleazy stories of taboo relationships were sensationalized for profit. However, it is within this disreputable genre that the first happy endings for fictional queer women were imagined. This thesis examines The Price of Salt, the first lesbian novel in the twentieth century to have a happy ending, and how time functions within the novel to produce a queer temporality. I argue that Carol and Therese create the possibility of a future that differs from the heteroreproductive social script.

This thesis contains three sections. The first section explores the genre conventions of lesbian pulp fiction and how The Price of Salt includes but also destroys some of these tropes. The second section is concerned with how the novel subverts the domestic ideology of the Cold War era. The third section examines the concepts of chrononormativity and reproductive futurism and how they apply to The Price of Salt.