LEC052044- Amaan Raza Rizvi- Abjection and Homophobia in "The Man with Night Sweats"

 

Amaan Raza Rizvi

Dr. Joseph Koyippally

Academic Writing

2 February, 2021.

Abjection and Homophobia in “The Man with Night Sweats”

Homophobia has been a rampant topic of discussion among the scholars ever since the mainstream literature started explicating it in bold, clear terms. As early as Marlowe’s Edward II, all down to Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Forster’s Maurice, homosexuality has been represented as a repressed tendency owing to its marginalization. Thom Gunn is one of those writers who continued that legacy in postmodern times. However, he has an iconoclastic approach as he discusses homophobia in his poetry. His poem “the Man with Night Sweats” serves that purpose, as it portrays the psychological impact of the repressed tendency stimulated again by the contemporary crisis. The poem’s tone of resignation is a neurosis resulting from an attempt to subvert homophobia as abjection.

Homosexuality has been a repressed tendency in a world survived by heteronormative paradigms. Its marginalization has caused its repression, albeit a debacle in the long run. Instances of transference of libido from ego to Id have been a common observable tendency in homosexuals, as the repressed becomes apparent in their mundane actions. This general discharge is termed by Freud as neurosis, a phenomenon which blurs the distinction between phantasy and reality. Gunn deals in this poem with a traumatic neurosis, one triggered by an emotionally-shocking experience or trauma. It should be kept in mind as one reads this poem that it was written against a background when AIDS epidemic had flared up, taking a toll on many lives. As Bersani explains, AIDS was seen as a divine punishment to the queer for their promiscuity. He further goes on to justify the latter against the stigmatization which is responsible for homophobic tendency (pp. 197-200).

Freud believed that a tendency of repetitive-compulsion exists causing a man to relive a trauma, propelled by one’s ego. The case of Gunn is similar where his compulsion was to return to his past mode of lifestyle despite the lethal risk associated to it. There is a tussle between his ego and Id here causing psychosomatic symptoms in him like cold sweats. Gillis asserts that the poem’s tension is built around this radical tendency, as Gunn endeavors to justify promiscuity against reason:

Gunn pointedly presents the suffering caused by AIDS as part of this community's collective experience. This wider perspective is possible because The Man with Night Sweats celebrates a style of sexuality based on the reciprocal interaction between bodies that ultimately leads to a radical alteration of the lyric subject. In the process of rethinking sex after AIDS, Gunn discards a model for lyric poetry in which the speaker contemplates his sexual prowess as an individual and replaces it with a model in which the speaker gives voice to a community of individuals, gay or straight (and, indeed, human or animal), defined and empowered by a willingness to enjoy sex in the face of illness and death (158, 159).

The neurosis which drives the poem results from a thanatos, or the death drive.  Freud has argued that the pleasure and reality principles operate in a similar way, working towards the ultimate goal of fulfillment of desire. One of these many desires in humans is “to bring them back to their primeval, inorganic state.”- the realm of absolute pleasure where Id and ego are united (Freud). This is called the death drive, which motivates a human just like his Id. A discharge of the repressed works in a similar fashion, equating neurosis with thanatos. In Gunn poetry, there is a continual struggle of poet’s desire to re-live his “dreams of heat,” but the “residue” shackles his thoughts time and again. This is a reflection of castration-complex, as the patriarchal customs (Law of the Father) decides the course of action and behavior of an individual. The poet took pride in the adventures of his past, considering his body immune to all physical threats. The trauma of AIDS had made him aware of his vulnerability, bringing his confidence to a state of imbalance. This is what drove the poet towards, what we know as destruction jouissance through a death drive.

Lacan’s assertion regarding jouissance is an important concept to understand as we explore Gunn’s poetry. The struggle thereby is actually motivated to move beyond the pleasure principle in order to overthrow the risks associated to it. Gillis’ explication that Gunn favored promiscuity over risk is an apt example of “painful principle.” Dean concludes:

However, by conceptualizing the death drive in terms of jouissance Lacan makes the idea more accessible, because jouissance suggests that there is a certain kind of satisfaction in death, that death itself is actually something one might, at some radical level, want - if not desire (Dean 105).

Homosexuality at the time Gunn wrote was stigmatized more than ever due to the flaring AIDS cases among the venturing queer who sought no adequate protection. The straight were as much as, rather, emphasis added, even more affected by the epidemic. Despite the contradictory statistics, homosexuals were marginalized further pushing them into mental and physical isolation (Bersani). Naturally, harmless symptoms were interpreted as harbingers of AIDS by the paranoid queer. While the fear existed motivating a changed lifestyle, an equal desire to re-unite with true self would often appear. This stimulated a man towards self-destruction and a realm of non-existence, whereby abjection of the Other from the Self would be resolved.

Much like the death drive, an abject (horror) too drives a person towards self-destruction. It can be questioned that how abjection accomplishes that purpose.  Aware as we are of that phenomenon, it pushes a human into the symbolic realm where he comes in face of something alien. This entity, a horror by nature, is enchanting to human psyche (Kristeva 1-15). It motivates him to a perverse behavior, driving him towards jouissance. An abject has been described as “the place of the abject is where meaning collapses, the place where I am not.” (Creed) Homosexuality can be seen as an abject (horror) for it is something alien to the heteronormative social structures. A man who is a part of a heterosexual society, survived by the conventional institutions of man and woman is ingrained with a conception of heteronormativity or Law of the Father. It is a truth for him, and any digression from it is abnormal to him. Thus as a homosexual confronts his unconventional desires, he feels alienated. He might fake his orientation to fit in the social frame, what we know as ‘being in the closet.’ The repressed homoerotic desires are discharged unconsciously, until his repressed musters up the courage to be bold and manifest. Once accomplished, it offers him a sense of existence, as he realizes what he truly is. This neurosis is the point where the Other and the Self re-unites, resolving abjection, as he experiences jouissance despite the social and physical risk apparently made associated to it. Gunn’s poetry explores a similar theme. He had been regretting “the shield has been broken,” due to his risky errand. The bed becomes s metaphor of his promiscuous homosexual lifestyle, wished as he to move to another:

I have to change the bed,   

But catch myself instead

 

Stopped upright where I am   

Hugging my body to me   

As if to shield it from   

The pains that will go through me,

 

The poet is yet not over his desire to be himself. He hugged himself, meaning thereby he sought to ease his body from the impending peril of the epidemic. His hands became the metaphor of his repression. The poet however, was aware that it was too meek to stand up to the leviathan wave of promiscuity that ran through his Id. The poet sought his liberty from the horror of abjection in it, as Gilles opines, “… wherein promiscuity connotes radical self-expression and liberation from social restraints” (161)

In conclusion, the Man with Night Sweats talks about the tussle of a queer man who oscillates between his own self and the stigma tagged to his past lifestyle. His repressed desire attempted to subvert the prejudiced links between AIDS and homosexuality, as he resolved to enjoy his promiscuity in face of death. The abjection of homophobia is to be subverted with a firm belief in one’s true self; the discharge of that repressed desire to in face of heteronormative paradigms brought about a neurosis, culminating in a tone of resignation in the poem.

Works Cited-

Bersani, Leo. Is Rectum a Grave? AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism, October, vol. 43, 1987, pp. 197-222.

Creed, Barbara. Horror and the Monstrous Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection, London Routledge, 1993. P. 65.

Dean, Tim. “Psychoanalysis of AIDS.” October, vol. 63, 1993, pp. 83-116.

Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents, translated by W.W. Norton, 1961.

Gillis, Collin. Rethinking Sexuality in Thom Gunn's "The Man with Night Sweats." Contemporary Literature, vol. 50, no. 1, 2009, pp 158-161.

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, Columbia University P, 1982. pp. 1-15.