Date of Award

6-30-2022

Publication Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

English Language, Literature, and Creative Writing

Keywords

Coded Language;Culture;LGBTQ Literature;Mystery;Queer Coding;Queer Literature

Supervisor

Louis Cabri

Abstract

“Trying For The Kingdom” is a novella exploring the themes of queer culture and communication, the coded languages our communities have utilized to seek each other out across time, and the circumstances which made coded communication necessary. Set in the spring of 1987, the story follows Daniel McBride over the weekend of his uncle’s funeral, as he uncovers three interwoven mysteries: what happened the night St. Jude Catholic Church caught fire, where Dorothy McBride vanished to when she crawled into her family mausoleum decades ago, and what his relationship with ex-boyfriend and suspected arsonist Lachlann Mills means to him in light of these revelations. All three mysteries culminate in a series of posthumous ciphers left to him by his Uncle Arthur, the priest of the local parish. In this thesis, the concept of ‘queer coding’ is utilized in the language queer people have created throughout history to safely connect and form communities. Daniel’s struggle to engage in the decoding of these ciphers reflects his reluctance to engage in his sexual identity in light of his religious family and the ever-watchful eyes of his small home town in rural Ontario. The thesis title and chapter titles are inspired by songs from The Velvet Underground. Other allusions include the poems of Sappho, the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and The Wizard of Oz.

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