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'You and I are humans, and there is something complicated between us”: Untamed and Queering the Heterosexual Historical Romance
Citation
McAlister, J, 'You and I are humans, and there is something complicated between us': Untamed and Queering the Heterosexual Historical Romance, Journal of Popular Romance Studies, 5, (2) pp. 1-21. ISSN 2159-4473 (2016) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2016 Journal of Popular Romance Studies
Official URL: http://jprstudies.org/issues/issue-5-2/
Abstract
Anna Cowan’s Untamed was one of the most discussed and reviewed historical romance releases of 2013. It was a polarising, unusual text, particularly due to its hero: a bisexual cross-dressing duke who passes as a woman for more than half the book. While it adheres to the structure and many of the tropes of what we might think of as a typical heterosexual historical romance, it is also recognisably queer. Untamed is a text preoccupied with the rigid becoming fluid. In this article, I will explore its queerness by reading it alongside Georgette Heyer’s The Masqueraders, which also features a cross-dressing hero. I will draw on David Halperin’s explication of the word "queer" to explore three key aspects of Untamed: the ways in which it approaches gender, social roles, and history, and how these contribute to the book’s project of fluidity. I will also examine online reviews of the book to examine how readers reacted to Untamed’s attempt to queer the straight romance: is this something for which there is an appetite? If so, what does this mean for historical romance in the future?
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | alternate histories, Anna Cowan, cross-dressing, Georgette Heyer, Historical Romance, queer romance |
Research Division: | Human Society |
Research Group: | Gender studies |
Research Field: | Gender relations |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in language, communication and culture |
UTAS Author: | McAlister, J (Dr Jodi McAlister) |
ID Code: | 112077 |
Year Published: | 2016 |
Deposited By: | School of Humanities |
Deposited On: | 2016-10-26 |
Last Modified: | 2017-10-30 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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