Tinsley, Phelan C. “IT DOESN’T HAVE NICE STORIES IN IT, NO LOVE LETTERS, NO HAPPY ENDINGS”: HOMOSEXUALITY, THE HOLOCAUST, AND RESISTANCE. 2017. Radford University, Thesis. Radford University Scholars' Repository.
This is the latest version of this item.
 |
PDF
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives. Download (602kB) |
Abstract
This project begins with a section dedicated to research that examines Martin Sherman’s Bent and Leslea Newman’s “A Letter to Harvey Milk.” In that piece, I argue that both Sherman’s play and Newman’s short story work to counter the negative discourses surrounding contemporary homosexuality, thus classifying these two texts as forms of active resistance. The research process was eye-opening, but something continued to bother me the more I delved into the project. Scholars and critics expressed concern for the missing narratives and literature from homosexual victims of the Holocaust. The four pieces of fiction in this thesis focus on those narratives. I attempted to keep elements of resistance in all four short stories, as well as keeping to a theme about family and love. My stories portray actual horrors that homosexuals faced in pre-war Germany, as well as in the concentration camps. The first two stories, “Else and Erich” and “Peter’s Automat,” explore the idea of creating family from friendship. “The German Volk, 1942” brings attention to the devastating effects that Nazi propaganda had on families with a homosexual child. Finally, “The Interviews” delves into a chosen family split apart after their imprisonment by the SS and gestapo. Many of the names and scenes in this fiction are taken from names, initials, and scenarios found in actual Nazi paperwork, documented in the book Hidden Holocaust?: Gay and Lesbian Persecution in Germany, 1933-45.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism P Language and Literature > PR English literature |
| Divisions: | Radford University > College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences > Department of English |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Sep 2017 14:26 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Apr 2023 18:33 |
| URI: | http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/360 |
Available Versions of this Item
- “IT DOESN’T HAVE NICE STORIES IN IT, NO LOVE LETTERS, NO HAPPY ENDINGS”: HOMOSEXUALITY, THE HOLOCAUST, AND RESISTANCE. (deposited 18 Sep 2017 14:26) [Currently Displayed]
Administrative Actions
 |
View Item |
