Refractions: Queer History Cast Through Experimental Poetry
Date
2024-01-16
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Abstract
Refractions, the creative manuscript in this dissertation, presents a long-form poetry narrative of the figurative being Thousand, born through refracted light in future Calgary, Alberta, that follows their search for family in an unfamiliar space. Divided into five “Movements” that emulate a symphony, Thousand’s search for their parentage reveals a familial fabric of queerness and kinship, beyond the nuclear family unit, as they slowly learn of the community network that surrounds them. In this future space, mothers and aunts create worlds like gods, characters forge bonds across thresholds of life and death, and queer parents represent a space for love, creation, and generative capacity, outside of traditional notions of progeny. Refractions is a story of queer kinship, chosen family, and ontological awakening. As Thousand learns where they come from, authorial memoirs are stored, illuminated, and shared within the site of the queer and future archive. By exploring multidirectional conduits between past and future, Thousand not only learns of where they come from and the formative powers of chosen family, but they discover their own language for queer identity, agency, and the capacity to pursue an undefined future. The critical exegesis presents a lineage of creative foundations and theoretical examinations that influence this manuscript. These include the short stories that weave antinarrative together in Wayde Compton’s The Outer Harbour, and the speculative fiction and mythmaking in Catherynne M. Valente’s Silently and Very Fast. Theoretical reflections underscore the importance of writing as community-situated, the politics of cultural appropriation, ethics and accountabilities. Refractions also considers the charge in José Esteban Muñoz’s pursuit for queer utopia, mindful of how Joan Retallack’s “The Poethical Wager” challenges writers to explore ethically and responsibly. In this way, Refractions considers how Thousand might hold their own space, agency, and limitless potential to pursue a Queer Poethics.
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Poetry, Queer, Kinship, Speculative Writing, Experimental Writing
Citation
Meunier, P. (2024). Refractions: queer history cast through experimental poetry (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.