Date of Award
Summer 8-3-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Tanya Agathocleous
Second Advisor
Shaj Mathew
Academic Program Adviser
Mark Miller
Abstract
An overreliance on secularism within the field of queer theory and a denial of spiritual epistemologies prevent deep, alternative, and transformative strategies of analyzing literature. It can regurgitate oppressive ideology in academia. In this work, I synthesize Gloria Anzaldúa’s theoretical concepts of mestiza consciousness, nepantla, la facultad, and el cenote with José Esteban Muñoz’s queer temporality and futurity as a framework to engage with literary texts in queer, postsecular ways, freeing up fresh insights and polysemic perspectives. I argue that in "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade" by Richard Bruce Nugent, Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, the authors employ techniques (such as counter-memory, epistolary form, ellipses, stream of consciousness, irony, and myth) to invite readers into spiritual, liminal spaces that mirror their characters’ queer journeys. The protagonists Alex, Makina, and Little Dog, respectively, seek liberated lives but must look inward, taking inventory of the dominant ideologies they have acquired that plague them, and outward, looking at alternative, communal, spiritual, queer, and ancestral consciousnesses that disrupt the tyranny of the oppressive present moment. In taking this approach, readers may glimpse traces of utopian, queer futurity that encourage us to embrace un nuevo conocimiento towards building a better world.
Recommended Citation
Swem, Joshua A., "Queer Postsecular Conocimiento: Anzaldúan Readings of Time, Spirituality, and Transformation in Nugent, Vuong, and Herrera" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/1580
Included in
Chicana/o Studies Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Queer Studies Commons
