Epistemology of the Closet

Why does Sedgwick believe that the discourse of “coming out” signals the central importance of homophonic oppression and the heterosexual/homosexual binary within Western culture? What role does history play in Sedgwick’s account?

What does Sedgwick see as being significant regarding Claggart’s official title in Melville’s novella Billy Budd? How does Claggart’s position on the ship magnify and exacerbate the dynamics between Billy and Claggart?

What is it about the relationship between Christianity and the male body that Sedgwick views to be a foundational moment where homophobia and heteronormativity became inseparable from one another?

Why does Sedgwick view Wilde and Nietzsche to be two of the best-placed writers regarding the crystallization of norms surrounding heterosexual and homosexual relations, particularly between heterosexual and homosexual men?

What were the significant historical shifts that informed D.H. Lawrence’s change in appreciation for James M. Barrie’s writing? How do these and Lawrence’s shifts relate to the phenomena of “homosexual panic”?

What are some of the historical, cultural, artistic, and literary phenomena that Sedgwick identifies as playing crucial roles in the integration of homophobia into the heart of homosocial bonds between men in modern society? And how does Sedgwick view this historical and material analysis in light of competing explanations such as those of Freud and psychoanalysts?

How does Sedgwick view the revaluation of the sentimental and antisentimental in Wilde’s and Nietzsche’s writing, and how does that inform the persistence of “homosexual panic?”

What does Sedgwick view as the key differences between the Victorian hero and the Gothic hero, and to what extent does this map onto the shift in masculine virtues and male figures in popular culture in nineteenth-century Europe?