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tklassy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
4.25
I’ve had this book on my TBR for what would be coming on four years. I’ve been interested in autoethnography throughout my PhD, mainly because I employ some of its methods in my own thesis. And each time I pick up a book that is centred around auto-ethnographic research, I’m reminded again about the power that it holds. If I’m not mistaken, I’ve read some of Adams’ work previously in academic journal form and as part of an extensive autoethnographic anthology, and was struck by his ability to weave academic theory and personal reflection in the same paragraph. And in this longer book form, he was able to exhibit, again, his ability to synthesise and emphasise information; information coming from both his personal, lived experiences as a gay man and the experiences of others in the LGBTQ community.
This book has really made me think about how we conceptualise the ‘closet’ Gay and queer people are said to live in before ‘ coming out’ (which is now a very complicated idea). as Adams references, I knew about the idea of the closet, only being impossible because of heteronormative assumptions; for the closet to exist, and you to come out of the closet, there needs to be a default assumption that everyone heterosexual to begin with. But Adams takes it further in questioning how we define ‘ coming out of the closet’ as an act. I now clearly see how this act is never really finished, but at the same time conceptualised to have a finite ending point.
Adams writes about queerness correctly, in that it has no physically defining markers or flags unless we were to go around wearing ‘ hi I’m gay’ T-shirts all the time, that coming out as queer, bisexual, gay, or Lesbian, is a constant, tiring, and often contradictory affair. Coming out is phased as politically responsible, mindful, as brave and right, and true to yourself. But timing this emergence from the closet has its own intricacies. Again contradiction is evident in that choosing to come out too late. Can end in others laying blame on you, that people will say things like, “ why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Or “Why did you pretend to have heterosexual relationships, you’ve hurt peoples feelings, you’ve hurt me, you’ve manipulated people you’ve lied.” While coming out at all, can also be phrased as selfish and harmful.
Adams’ conclusion that we need to rethink how we talk about, not only ‘ coming out as gay’, but also the closet and queerness, is apt and timely even now 10 years after the books publication. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. it’s an essential and foundational contribution to queer academic literature.
This book has really made me think about how we conceptualise the ‘closet’ Gay and queer people are said to live in before ‘ coming out’ (which is now a very complicated idea). as Adams references, I knew about the idea of the closet, only being impossible because of heteronormative assumptions; for the closet to exist, and you to come out of the closet, there needs to be a default assumption that everyone heterosexual to begin with. But Adams takes it further in questioning how we define ‘ coming out of the closet’ as an act. I now clearly see how this act is never really finished, but at the same time conceptualised to have a finite ending point.
Adams writes about queerness correctly, in that it has no physically defining markers or flags unless we were to go around wearing ‘ hi I’m gay’ T-shirts all the time, that coming out as queer, bisexual, gay, or Lesbian, is a constant, tiring, and often contradictory affair. Coming out is phased as politically responsible, mindful, as brave and right, and true to yourself. But timing this emergence from the closet has its own intricacies. Again contradiction is evident in that choosing to come out too late. Can end in others laying blame on you, that people will say things like, “ why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Or “Why did you pretend to have heterosexual relationships, you’ve hurt peoples feelings, you’ve hurt me, you’ve manipulated people you’ve lied.” While coming out at all, can also be phrased as selfish and harmful.
Adams’ conclusion that we need to rethink how we talk about, not only ‘ coming out as gay’, but also the closet and queerness, is apt and timely even now 10 years after the books publication. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. it’s an essential and foundational contribution to queer academic literature.
reading_rainbow_with_chris's review against another edition
5.0
“Narrating the Closet: An Autoethnography of Same-Sex Attraction” by Tony Adams
Despite having cited Adams for several of my projects in graduate school, I had yet to read what is probably considered his seminal work. This autoethnographic investigation of the closet as related to same-sex attraction is a scholarly work, so I don’t recommend picking it up for a breezy read. However, within the scholarly framing this is a fantastic, thought-provoking, and accessible (by academic standards) book. Adams does a superb job of balancing theory and conceptual development with his own narratives, narratives of others, and cultural artifacts to create a clear(er) understanding of the closet, a concept many in the queer community take for granted. Before reading this book, I spent much of my thinking about “coming out” on the narratives themselves, the performative utterance. However, reading “Narrating the Closet” has reoriented how I approach these narratives and has given me great tools to deepen any investigation of them I undertake (the reference section alone is an education in queer theory and qualitative research).
I would recommend this book as a thoughtful (and enjoyable) read for anyone working in LGBTQ academics, especially communication. I would not even hesitate to assign this book for a class of undergraduates; it’s something I could definitely see investigated in a 400 level or bridge course.
Despite having cited Adams for several of my projects in graduate school, I had yet to read what is probably considered his seminal work. This autoethnographic investigation of the closet as related to same-sex attraction is a scholarly work, so I don’t recommend picking it up for a breezy read. However, within the scholarly framing this is a fantastic, thought-provoking, and accessible (by academic standards) book. Adams does a superb job of balancing theory and conceptual development with his own narratives, narratives of others, and cultural artifacts to create a clear(er) understanding of the closet, a concept many in the queer community take for granted. Before reading this book, I spent much of my thinking about “coming out” on the narratives themselves, the performative utterance. However, reading “Narrating the Closet” has reoriented how I approach these narratives and has given me great tools to deepen any investigation of them I undertake (the reference section alone is an education in queer theory and qualitative research).
I would recommend this book as a thoughtful (and enjoyable) read for anyone working in LGBTQ academics, especially communication. I would not even hesitate to assign this book for a class of undergraduates; it’s something I could definitely see investigated in a 400 level or bridge course.
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