Queer Desire and the Men of the Nation

Reading Race, Masculinity, and South African National Identity in John Greyson’s Proteus

Bibliographic Data

ID12786366
AuthorsJesse Arseneault (0000-0002-6974-9162, Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume14
Issue1
Pages37-58
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSafundi (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1543-1304 • E-ISSN: 1753-3171
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17533171.2012.760829
OpenAlexW2014121291
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited24

This article examines John Greyson’s film, Proteus, for the way it figures queer masculinity and race in South Africa’s national historical narrative. The film offers an esthetic rendering of an eighteenth century interracial sodomy trial set on Robben Island. Drawing on contemporary queer theory and recent South African narratives of masculinity that privilege heternormativity and nationalism, this paper argues that the film carves out a space for queer identity within national history where it had previously been denied. The paper traces the way that the film interjects queer narratives into South Africa’s national identity, disrupts the heteronormalization of various sites of national iconography on South Africa’s historical terrain (such as Robben Island), and offers a queer masculinity that resists racial segregation. Moreover, this paper traces the ways that the film has implications for contemporary queer communities within South Africa

Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Masculinity · Narrative · National identity · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Queer · Sociology · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Law · South African History and Culture