Journal Article

A Narrative of a Future Past: Historical Authenticity, Ethics, and Queer Latinx Futurity in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Matos, Angel Daniel

2019

Overview

(Edelman 12–13; emphasis in original). Because of this blame placed on queer people and communities, the engagement in practices that pressure reproductive logics is framed as non-normative because they refute ideals and practices that are valorized in heteronormative contexts.7 In one of the many letters that Dante sends to Ari, he discloses his attraction to other boys. [...]coming out prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States commonly involved a realization of the possibility that one would not be able to marry a person of the same gender. While Dante uses his parents' marriage as a model for gauging his own relationship with Aristotle, his yearning for an institutionalized union between two men remains incongruous given the novel's space-time. Since marriage among many queer people was still illegal in most states in 2012 (the year in which this novel was published), this instance, although historically suspect, ruptures the boundaries that exist between historical representation and fictional projections. Scholars such as Roberta Seelinger Trites have suggested that these narratives often position adolescent characters as figures who must align themselves against parental figures (whether real or imaginary) \"so that they can fully enter into the Symbolic Order\" (83). [...]the trope in which queer characters abandon the space of home and the family can be approached as an instance of this symbolic murder of the parent figure in order to enable the processes of coming out and self-actualization. 9.

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Subject: Adolescents / Aesthetics / Alcoholism / Alighieri, Dante (1265-1321) / Allusion / Ambiguity / American literature / Aristotle (384-322 BC) / Authenticity / Authors / Authorship / Bildungsroman / Childrens literature / Culture / Ethics / Fiction / Gender / Historical fiction / Ideology / Intersectionality / Italian literature / Literary characters / Literary devices / Literary Genres / Literature / Murders & murder attempts / Narrative techniques / Narratives / Novels / Pedagogy / Plot (Narrative) / Readers / Saenz, Benjamin Alire / Self-actualization / Sexuality / Writers / Young adult literature