Side-Stepping Normativity in Selected Short Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Download or read book Side-Stepping Normativity in Selected Short Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner written by Rebecca K. Hahn and published by Narr Francke Attempto Verlag. This book was released on 2020-07-27 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Side-Stepping Normativity: Selected Short Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner discusses Sylvia Townsend Warner's highly innovative narrative style, which does not conform to conventional modernist or postmodernist standards, and explores how Warner's short stories shift to off-centre positions. Side-Stepping Normativity further outlines the way in which Warner constantly challenges the categories we apply to classify our surroundings and analyses how Warner succeeds in creating queer, that is, non-heteronormative as well strange and peculiar stories without explicitly opposing the so-called norms of her time. In this, Side-Stepping Normativity joins a vibrant conversation in queer studies which revolves around the question how critics can approach literary texts from a non-antagonistic position. Rather than focussing on the role of the critic, however, this thesis shows that Warner's texts have long achieved what queer theorists seek to achieve on an analytical level.