Queering the Interior

by Cook, Matt; Gorman-Murray, Andrew; Cox, Rosie; Buchli, Victor

• ISBN13: 9781474262200
• ISBN10: 1474262201
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2018-03-08
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Queering the Interior problematizes the familiar space of 'home', exploring how queer men and women experience domestic life and unveiling the detail and complexity of queer home making.

The book follows an innovative, unusual structure: divided into two sections, Upstairs and Downstairs, each of the nine chapters examine a different room or space inside the home. Our journey starts in the entryway and continues through the living room, dining room, kitchen, garden, bathroom/toilets, bedroom, closets, to the nursery. Each room is examined through the lens of specialists from a wide range of disciplines. Drawing upon a variety of methods – including case studies, spatial analysis, interviews and a photo essay – contributors from the UK, Australia, Canada, and the United States present detailed, grounded work which is rare to find in heavily theorised fields such as gender studies and queer theory.

A highly creative approach to queer analysis of domestic spaces, Queering the Interior makes an important contribution to fields such as gender studies, cultural studies, design, architecture, anthropology, sociology, and cultural geography.

Author Biography

Matt Cook, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
Andrew Gorman Murray, University of Western Sydney, Australia

Table of Contents

Introduction: Queering the Interior Matt Cook (Birkbeck, University of London, UK) and Andrew Gorman-Murray (University of Western Sydney, Australia)

Part I: Downstairs
1. The Entryway Brent Pilkey (Bartlett Institute of Architecture, University College London, UK)
2. Living Rooms
a. Living Rooms in Queer Novels Martin Dines (Kingston University, UK)
b. Messy Living Rooms Robyn Dowling, Karina Luzia (Macquarie University, Australia), Emma Power and Andrew Gorman-Murray (University of Western Sydney, Australia)
c. 'Sitting' in the Queer House Museum: Two Australian Perspectives Peter McNeil (Sydney University of Technology, Australia)
3. Dining Rooms: Picturing Personal and Social Space – A Photo Essay Andrew Gorman Murray (University of Western Sydney, Australia)
4. Kitchens
a. Queer Kitchens Angela Meah (University of Sheffield, UK)
b. Beyond Kitchen Walls: Queering Domestic Space through Memory and Story-telling Rachel Scicluna (University of Manchester, UK)
c. The Kitchen: Lesbian Pulp Fiction's Radical Conventionalism Amy Tooth Murphy (Roehampton University, UK)
5. Gardens: Safe Space, Storage, Outdoor Plumbing - Lesbian Garden History Lisa L. Moore (University of Texas, USA)

Part II: Upstairs
6. Bathrooms and toilets
a. Toilets Kath Browne (University of Brighton, UK)
b. A Bathroom of One's Own: Hygiene, Sexuality and Creative Communities Beyond the Public/Private Divide, c.1880-1940 John Potvin (Concordia University, Canada)
c. Writing on the Bathroom Wall: LGBTQ Stories and the Sex Life of the Toilet Sheila L. Cavanagh (York University, Canada)
7. Bedroom
a. 'Living together as….' Daniel Monk (Birkbeck, University of London, UK)
b. The Bedsit Mark Armstrong (University of Northumbria, UK)
8. Closets
a. A Georgian, an Edwardian and a Modern Closet Compared Dominic Janes (University of the Arts, London, UK)
b. The Queer Closet Christopher Breward (University of Edinburgh, UK)
9. The Nursery Matt Cook (Birkbeck, University of London, UK)

Conclusion: Building New Queer Domestic Spaces? Andrew Gorman-Murray (University of Western Sydney, Australia) and Matt Cook (Birkbeck, University of London, UK)
Bibliography
Index