![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
letsgetthisbread We were talking in class about how domesticity (and the mundane-ness associated with it) seems to mark the death of heterosexual relationships in cult TV. However, I think this is pretty relevant to relationships in realist fiction as well, at least in cases where domesticity isn't a central element (e.g. not like Modern Family, Little House on the Prairie, etc.). For example, in books/shows where a heterosexual romance/courtship is central to the story, the plot tends to end after the "marriage" (or equivalent) scene. Even fan authors seem hesitant to expand on the "after," unless it's a one-shot (or series of one-shots). The example I'm thinking of here is Pride and Prejudice. Austen has a paragraph or two at the end that's basically a vague "happily ever after" (and it's pretty similar for most of her books), and occasionally talked about the fate of her couples post-story in letters to her sister, but otherwise all the more "domestic" parts are left up to the imaginations of the readers. In the P&P fandom, nobody really seems to care enough about Lizzy/Darcy (or Jane/Bingley or literally anyone) post-marriage -- most fanfiction is pre-marriage, and any post-marriage fics are usually one-shots and/or super unpopular overall.
Jones' article also talks about the Xena the Warrior Princess fic where Xena and Gabriella raise a family, and I'm super curious as to how popular that fic was (or how popular Kirk/Spock domestic fics are). Are domestic fics more entertaining than domestic TV? If domesticity is a threat to keeping characters (and our own lives) interesting, then why is it still held as an ideal??? It's weird to think that, in a society where sexuality is so policed and that non-heterosexual relationships are so often oppressed, heterosexual relationships seem to have less freedom in how they can progress. We assume heterosexual couples will end up raising a family, etc., but that homosexual couples don't have to/can still go on adventures.
Jones' article also talks about the Xena the Warrior Princess fic where Xena and Gabriella raise a family, and I'm super curious as to how popular that fic was (or how popular Kirk/Spock domestic fics are). Are domestic fics more entertaining than domestic TV? If domesticity is a threat to keeping characters (and our own lives) interesting, then why is it still held as an ideal??? It's weird to think that, in a society where sexuality is so policed and that non-heterosexual relationships are so often oppressed, heterosexual relationships seem to have less freedom in how they can progress. We assume heterosexual couples will end up raising a family, etc., but that homosexual couples don't have to/can still go on adventures.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-12 02:32 am (UTC)Second - yessss! A famous queer Austen critic, D.A. Miller, has written about this - I think one of his essays (possibly on Emma) is call "The Narrative of Perfect Happiness." As I remember, he argues that, in Austen's novel, Emma is promiscuous by proxy/in imagination, through her matchmaking and fantasies about Frank Churchill etc. But once she is married, she disappears: perfect happiness = "the end."