Week 9: Epistemology of the Closet: Chapter 2: Some Binarisms (I): Billy Budd: After the Homosexual (p. 91-130)

Summary:

This chapter is a deconstructive analysis of the novella Billy Budd written by Herman Melville, but not published until after his death in 1924. The story concerns Billy Budd, a sailor who was very charismatic and well-liked aboard the ship “Bellipotent.” However, although generally popular among the crew, one member named Claggart falsely accuses Budd of conspiring a mutiny against the ship’s captain Vere which leads to his death. This novella was also turned into a very popular opera by E.M. Forrester and Benjamin Britten.

Sedgwick introduces this chapter by explaining the purposes of this chapter and the following chapter concerning “binarisms”: 1) introduce and define binarisms 2) analyze Billy Budd and The Picture of Dorian Gray and 3) look at 1891 as an important moment in history here a modern homosexual identity and the issue of sexual orientation began.

The author introduces Billy Budd as the story of a homosexual, Claggart, who is presented as different from his fellow sailors and an opposition to Vere, who is portrayed as normal. Also, there is an overarching theme of homosexuality, it questions the “essential nature of men’s desire for men” (p. 94). Sedgwick continues by providing a deconstructive analysis of the text to explain how she has come to recognize Claggart as a homosexual. She explains the following binaries within the work: 1) knowledge/ignorance; natural/unnatural 2) urbane/provincial; innocence/initiation; man/boy 3) cognition/paranoia; secrecy/disclosure 4) discipline/terrorism 5) public/private 6) sincerity/sentimentality 7) health/illness and 8) wholeness/decadence; utopia/apocalypse.

This chapter basically provides a detailed analysis of Billy Budd and the author explains how all of these exist within the novella even though they are seemingly contradictory. For example, being depraved can be natural or unnatural. Claggart’s character is explained as being explained in two possible ways, he is “depraved because homosexual, or alternatively depraved because homophobic—is of course an odd problem” (p. 96). Another example from this chapter concerning knowledge explains that “knowledge of the world” is equated with “the ability to recognize same-sex desire” which is “also a form of vulnerability as much as it is of mastery (p. 100). The false accusation of mutiny by Claggart can also be seen as the cognition/paranoia binary in this way. An illustration of the public/private binary is seen in the presentation of the ship’s actual space. It is never clearly defined which space belongs to the public and what actions are official and unofficial on the part of the captain because of the lack of space definition. Although, Vere is portrayed as the normal counterbalance to Claggart, he also represents the health/illness binary. He represents: “competence and craziness, or discipline and desire” (p. 124). In the final section, wholeness/decadence; utopia/apocalypse, Sedgwick discusses “gay genocide” or omnicide. “The deadlock of the past century between minoritizing and universalizing understandings of homo/heterosexual definition can only have deepened this fatal bond in the heterosexist imaginaire” (p. 128). She also explains that AIDS has become a “tragedy confined to our generation” (p. 129). She ends the chapter by stating that in order to get rid of this minority/universal binary we must open it up by recognizing it and thoughtfully analyzing it.


Reaction:



This chapter was difficult to summarize because it was a detailed analysis of a novella that I was not previously familiar with. I also do not think that it was clearly explained why binaries should be used to define one of the characters as homosexual. I understood the examples provided to show that Claggart was homosexual, however, I’m not sure if there was an explicit reason that binaries and a deconstructive analysis was chosen. I feel like binaries highlight difference and it seemingly draws a clear line between heterosexuality and homosexuality. The analysis was interesting, but I would have been more interested to read the following chapter since I have read The Picture of Dorian Gray.