Intersecting and competing discourses in Harvey Fierstein's Tidy endings

1 May 1991

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis 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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