The Queer Uncanny: New Perspectives on the Gothic

The Queer Uncanny investigates the roles played by the concept of the uncanny, as defined by Sigmund Freud and other theorists, in representing lesbian, gay, and transgender characters in a selection of British, American, and Caribbean fiction published between 1980 and 2007. Paulina Palmer analyzes novels by Christopher Bram, Philip Hensher, Alan Hollingurst, Randall Kenan, Shani Mootoo, Sarah Schulman, Ali Smith, Sarah Waters, and Jeanette Winterson, among others, highlighting the inventive ways these authors recast traditional Gothic motifs from a queer perspective. Topics discussed include secrets and their disclosure, queer spectrality, the homely/unhomely house, the grotesque, lesbian social invisibility, transgender doubles, and the intersection between sexuality and race.

Now retired, Paulina Palmer was a senior lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. She was also a lecturer of gender and sexuality at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her publications include Contemporary Women’s Fiction: Narrative Practice and Feminist Theory; Contemporary Lesbian Writing: Dreams, Desire, Difference; and Lesbian Gothic: Transgressive Fictions.