Bad Boys and Binaries: Mary Harker on Diana Wieler's <em>Bad Boy</em>

Abstract

Résumé: Dans le présent article, P. Nodelman conteste les conclusions que Mary Harker propose dans son analyse du roman Bad Boy de Diana Wieler, parue dans la revue CCL. D'une part, l'auteur concède que le comportement du héros, A.J., s'inscrit en faux centre les stéréotypes de l'hétérosexualité; d'autre part, il démontre que le second personnage principal, Tully, conforte la vision traditionnelle de l'homosexualité masculine. Sous des apparences contestataires et modemistes, le roman respecte les dichotomies de la morale occidentale et sanctionne la représentation classique de l'homosexualité masculine. Summary: A response to an earlier CCL article, Mary Harker's "Tweaking the Canon: Diana Wieler's Bad Boy," this article challenges the idea that Wieler succeeded in her attempt to "contest the dominant, monologic male discourse of the Bad Boy tradition." While Bad Boy challenges conventional ideas about heterosexual masculinity in its portrayal of one of its central characters, A.J., it seems to confirm other conventional ideas—ones about homosexual masculinity—in terms of its portrayal of its other central character, Tully. Wieler's choice of counterpointing Tully's story with A.J.' s in a surprisingly intricate and detailed way ends up implying that homosexual behaviour is always other than and opposite to heterosexual behaviour, in just about every way imaginable. In indulging in this kind of traditional thinking by means of binary oppositions, the novel supports many stereotypical (and surely inaccurate) ideas about the meaning and nature of male homosexuality—stereotypes that are unfortunately still all too current in our culture.