Mitchell, Jonathan (2017) The Empty Child: Dystopian Innocence in Samuel Delany's Hogg. European Journal of American Studies, 11 (3). ISSN 1991-9336

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Abstract

This essay examines Samuel Delany’s novel, Hogg to interrogate the figure of the innocent child and the role of the family in America, especially in mid-century America. The essay contends that the novel, narrated by the unnamed eleven-year-old protagonist who details both his polymorphously perverse sexual exploits as companion to the eponymous Hogg (outcast, murderer and rapist for hire) and acts also as chronicle of Hogg’s experiences over 72 hours, destabilizes the ideology of innocence that acts as a utopian foundation to America’s national understanding of itself as exceptional.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Special Issue: Re-Queering The Nation: America’s Queer Crisis
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Art, Media and American Studies University of East Anglia > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > American Studies
Related URLs:	http://ejas.revues.org/11775
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	04 Oct 2016 16:00
Last Modified:	22 Jul 2020 01:07
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/60746
DOI:	10.4000/ejas.11775

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