The Queerness of “The Yellow Wall-Paper”

Abstract

As we move into this section of brief, provocative applications of the theories discussed in earlier chapters, the first issue that we confront is the fundamental question of what texts or sorts of texts lend themselves to queer analysis. Are some poems, short stories, novels, etc. appropriate and others inappropriate for this particular avenue of interpretation and theoretical investigation? As with many of the questions that queer theories generate, there is no simple answer to that query. Of course, texts often lend themselves in rather obvious ways to certain methodologies. For instance, a novel such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, which concerns the plight of a woman struggling to find satisfying employment and companionship in a patriarchal society, seems tailor-made for feminist analysis. But for the student interested in writing about such a text, the fact that many previous critics have already written about the novel from such a standpoint certainly makes the process of finding one’s own perspective and adding uniquely to the conversation about the novel a particularly daunting task. And beyond considering that practical aspect of reviewing and adding to previous scholarship, it is vital to see that other concerns and relationships in the novel, embedded in and adjacent to gender relationships, can be just as important to consider in understanding the text and its context. A skillful and imaginative critic can generate a detailed exploration of the class, colonial, and/or sexual ideologies that exist at or just below the surface of the narrative. A thematically rich and complex text such as Jane Eyre can support many different avenues of inquiry and interpretation well beyond the one that is most obvious.