Queer Temporality And Memory In Contemporary Fiction

Abstract

This paper explores the intersections of queer temporality and memory in contemporary fiction, focusing on Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House. These two novels present queer experiences that disrupt normative temporalities, offering alternative narratives of time, memory, and identity. This paper argues that both texts challenge the conventional linear progression of time, using fragmented, cyclical, and non-linear storytelling to represent queer memory and lived experience.Drawing on theoretical frameworks such as José Esteban Muñoz’s queer futurity, Elizabeth Freeman’s chrono - normativity, and Jack Halberstam’s queer time, the paper analyzes how these authors reimagine the relationship between past, present, and future. Muñoz’s notion of queer futurity highlights how these novels resist heteronormative historical trajectories, envisioning queer lives that exist outside traditional time-bound expectations. Through close readings of Vuong and Machado’s texts, the paper demonstrates how queer temporality is not just a thematic concern but a crucial narrative strategy that shapes the characters' emotional landscapes and their resistance to dominant societal norms. Ultimately, the paper argues that these novels propose a new way of understanding queer identity—one that is fluid, fragmented, and resilient in the face of normative temporality, offering rich possibilities for future queer lives and memory-making.