An Analysis Of The Line Of Beauty From The Perspective Of Queer Theory

Alan Hollinghurst is an English writer well-known for his gay-themed novel. The Line of Beauty, his forth novel, won the Booker Prize in 2004. It is the first time that a gay-themed novel ever won the Booker Prize in its 36 years history. Hollinghurst's novels are well known for his deeply digging into the 1980s England, homosexual and AIDS. This novel, The Line of Beauty, is not the exception. Even though it meets with some criticism and doubt, it wins back much applause and praise for the language, style and theme. It is regarded as Alan Hollinghurst's masterpiece.This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter 1 is to introduce Alan Hollinghurst and his works, a brief introduction of The Line of Beauty and critical responses to it.Chapter 2 mainly introduces the background of The Line of Beauty, including the history of HIV & AIDS in the UK from 1983 to 1987; the gay and AIDS situation from 1983 to 1987; the interpretation of the title of the book.Chapter 3 focuses on the development of the queer theory; the relation between queer theory and Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. Michel Foucault argues that sexuality is not the nature of or essential to the people, but a cultural category which is constructed in the society; power operates through discourse to produce sexuality. Judith Butler holds that gender is performatively produced. It is performative and it constitutes the identity which is purported to be.Chapter 4 analyzes The Line of Beauty from the perspective of queer theory, and the three love experiences of Nick:the secret love of Nick towards Toby; the homosexual love between Nick and Leo; the homosexual relation between Nick and Wani. By using queer theory and analyzing the love with three people coming from different social status, the author aims to explore how the heterosexual hegemony is realized through a diversity of discourse; how the gender is permatively produced and constructs the identity; and how the homosexual's rights of discourse are taken away and how they deny themselves.In the conclusion chapter, the author tries to point out that, according to Alan Hollinghurst's description of Nick's three love experiences, Nick never loses his hope for life and for the bright future of the homosexual identity. It reflects queer theory's challenge to dualistic structure of the hetero and the homosexual.