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Queer cryptograms, anarchist cyphers: decoding Dennis Cooper's The marbled swarm: a novel

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 20:46 authored by Diarmuid Hester
Concentrating on Dennis Cooper’s latest work, The Marbled Swarm: A Novel, a fiendishly complex, experimental tale of murder and cannibalism in Cooper’s adopted home city of Paris, I show that both the subject of the text and its formal architecture are suspended between twin principles of secrecy and concealment. I argue that a consideration of these secret strategies allows us to perceive the implicit connections between Cooper’s writing and communities of queer dissidents and anarchist dissenters who used similar covert techniques in earlier centuries in order to persist in the face of public prosecution. Following an in-depth historical appraisal of these modes of communication, and their provenance in the back-streets of Paris, London and New York, I conclude by considering the contemporary significance of Cooper’s most recent novel

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Studies in the Literary Imagination

ISSN

0039-3819

Publisher

Georgia State University

Issue

2

Volume

45

Page range

95-112

Department affiliated with

  • English Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-05-12

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