Dismembering the Heterosexual Imaginary: A Feminist Cultural Anatomy of the Infidelity Narrative in Nancy Mairs’s "Remembering the Bone House"
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[1] University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
Estados Unidos
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- Localización: Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, ISSN 0732-7730, ISSN-e 1936-1645, Vol. 27, Nº. 2, 2008, págs. 327-352
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
This article examines Nancy Mairs’s memoir Remembering the Bone House (1989) as a feminist critique of male-dominant heterosexuality. The article counters the moral and aesthetic condemnation that has characterized critical responses and student reactions to Mairs’s sexual encounters by arguing that female self-revelation reveals the circumstances of objectification. Mairs narrates the negotiation of sexual desire and power in a nonabusive heterosexual partnership, presenting female awakening as a break with marital authority. This article draws on disability studies and critical heterosexuality studies to uncover the full range of Mairs’s dissenting positions and demystification of the romantic ideology. In a substantial postscript, the article also addresses the role of lesbian sexuality in challenging the heterosexual imaginary.
