Intersecting and competing discourses in Harvey Fierstein's Tidy endings
- 1 May 1991
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in Quarterly Journal of Speech
- Vol. 77 (2), 196-207
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00335639109383952
Abstract
This essay illustrates the fallacies of dichotomizing a monolithic ideological, oppressive, dominant discourse and a pluralistic, potentially resistant subcultural discourses. The argument is based upon a case study of gay‐male spectators’ interpretations of Tidy Endings, a teleplay about gay rights. In the case of Tidy Endings, the dominance/resistance metaphor cannot account for the power struggle among multiple discourses within the text and spectators’ interpretation of the text. Perhaps more significantly, the dichotomy would lead a critic into confounding a discourse of gay rights with a discourse of gay liberation and a discourse of heterosexuality with a discourse of patriarchy.Keywords
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