Date of Award

5-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.F.A.

Degree Program

Creative Writing

Department

English

Major Professor

Justin Maxwell

Second Advisor

David Hoover

Third Advisor

Katie Garagiola

Abstract

Malone is a law-school dropout looking for love in all the wrong places in 1970s New York. But when you’re gay, sometimes the “wrong places” are the only places where love is allowed to blossom. In this queer kaleidoscope of disco havens, subway stations, and cruisy parks on the Lower East Side, one man’s journey in romance is emblematic of the gay coming-of-age experience. The other major player in Dancer is Sutherland, a drug dealer and socialite who dresses in elaborate costumes and flies off to South America to gamble. Malone and Sutherland’s friendship thrives under the artificial light of the mirror ball and the blare of Patti Jo over the Twelfth Floor’s speakers. Can their love of light and beauty feed Malone’s soul? Are features and surfaces enough? Or is he destined to feel alone forever despite his repeated collisions with love, sex, violence, and the Dance?

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

Available for download on Monday, April 16, 2029

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