Nightwood Outside of the Binary: Investigating an Abnormal and Queer Text

Abstract

My essay investigates Djuna Barnes's novel Nightwood and the many parts within this novel which help categorize it as queer or abnormal, in every sense. I assert that queerness is not just an underlying theme within the narrative used to propel the relationship between the characters Robin Vote and Nora Flood forward. Rather, it is implemented stylistically and thematically throughout the text as well. To follow up on these ideas, I spend time close reading passages that focus on queer characters in Nightwood - queer in their sexuality, but also queer in other ways. I have specifically chosen Dr. Matthew O'Connor, who disrupts the gender binary, and Robin Vote, whose absent presence in the novel makes her one of the text's greatest abnormalities. These threads of queerness and abnormality were also present within Barnes's life, and so I investigate Barnes's queer history for this project. With regard to biographical research, the question of queerness shifts from the broad, "How did the idea of queerness impact Barnes's writing of Nightwood?" to the narrower but still crucial question of why her personal queerness, as well as the queerness of her life, impacted the writing of Nightwood. To conclude my project, I put my ideas in conversation with those of critics, including Jane Marcus and theorist Laura Mulvey, emphasizing throughout how the makeup of Nightwood, and Djuna Barnes's personal history, impact textual interpretations and the understanding of the novel as a queer text in every way.