{"id":383,"date":"2021-03-04T12:53:32","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T17:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/?p=383"},"modified":"2021-03-04T12:53:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T17:53:32","slug":"subverting-connotations-of-wilderness-in-brokeback-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/2021\/03\/04\/subverting-connotations-of-wilderness-in-brokeback-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Subverting Connotations of Wilderness in Brokeback Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

While reading for another class, I found a portion of the text that discussed the film Brokeback Mountain<\/em>. After I finished the novella, I read this passage again and found that these concepts tie into the book as well; they explore how Brokeback Mountain <\/em>subverts historical conceptions of a sexualized wilderness, in which pure, virginal land serve as a place of domination for heterosexual men.<\/p>\n

In the book Ecocriticism<\/em>, the evolution of connotations of the wilderness throughout literature and film are explored. The author asserts that Brokeback Mountain <\/em>as a novella subverts some of culturally pervasive connotations of wilderness: \u201cThe film challenges the heteronormative assumptions underlying both the construction of \u2018cowboy\u2019 masculinities and, more subtly, the sexual coding of wilderness as a virile, heterosexual space\u201d (Gerrard 60). The wilderness plays a large role in the film and novella, specifically acting as symbol of Ennis and Jack\u2019s attraction, both sexual and romantic. Historically, both in real life and in literature, the wilderness is often viewed as a place of domination and conquest for heterosexual men. In Brokeback Mountain<\/em>, it is seen by Jack and Ennis as a safe space for queer sexual acts (though this does not translate into a safe space for queer identities for either of the men). Jack perceives the land as not just providing a space for these actions, but a direct influence on them. Jack says to Ennis, \u201cOld Brokeback got us good and it sure ain\u2019t over\u201d (Proulx 26). Instead of the men having dominion over the land, the land has power over them. Not only does the wilderness influence the men to \u201ctransgress\u201d from the \u201cnorm\u201d of heterosexuality in regard to their sexual acts, but it also allows for romantic tenderness that cannot exist elsewhere: \u201cWhat Jack remembered and craved in a way that he could neither help not understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger\u201d (Proulx 43). Ennis can only allow himself to reciprocate Jack\u2019s romantic desire for him in the mountains, away from civilization, where they feel invisible and protected by the wilderness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While reading for another class, I found a portion of the text that discussed the film Brokeback Mountain. After I finished the novella, I read this passage again and found that these concepts tie into the book as well; they explore how Brokeback Mountain subverts historical conceptions of a sexualized wilderness, in which pure, virginal … Continue reading Subverting Connotations of Wilderness in Brokeback Mountain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4649,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}