The novel Each Distant Light and “By the way you dance”: an essay on disco and identity

Morwood, Andrew (2017) The novel Each Distant Light and “By the way you dance”: an essay on disco and identity. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis is presented in two related sections; the first (primary) section is the novel Each Distant Light, and the second, ‘“By the way you dance”: an essay on disco and identity’, is an investigation into the role of disco in the creation of a gay identity.
Each Distant Light, set in 1981, follows Col, a young gay man who leaves his Northern Irish home in search of a more accepting community in New York. Over the course of one night in a dance club, memories from Col’s past overwhelm his present, increasing his sense of dislocation. Longing to belong, he’s homesick for a home he can never return to, yet is unable to find comfort in the sexual liberation of the gay scene.
‘“By the way you dance”: an essay on disco and identity’ is an exploration of the transformative effects of dance music and club culture, particularly with regards to gay men. Focusing on the disco scene of 1970s New York and Andrew Holleran’s 1978 novel Dancer from the Dance, the piece investigates the disruptive attributes of music and club spaces, their role in the development of gay liberation, and the possibilities they offer dancers in contemplation of the self.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Literature and Creative Writing (former - to 2011)
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2018 13:20
Last Modified:	20 Jun 2020 00:38
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/67661
DOI:

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