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In:Identity Perspectives from Peripheries
Edited by Yoshiko Matsumoto and Jan-Ola Östman
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 352] 2025
► pp. 235–259

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Chapter 11
Querying peripheral identities with penumbral positionings in ‘gay’ immigrants’ ‘coming-back-in’ narratives

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Published online: 13 June 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.352.11wan
Abstract
This chapter draws on sociolinguistic interview data with same-sex desiring immigrants in the U.S. and analyzes two ‘coming-back-in’ narratives, wherein narrators’ same-sex desire encounters rejection after disclosure. By rekindling the desire-identity debate in language and sexuality studies, I examine fear and repression, two dimensions in the desire-centered approach, in the discussion of (homo)sexuality and their connection to identity (de)construction. Positioning theory serves as the mediation for analytically integrating desire and identity in mutual productions by illustrating how discursive expressions of desire in interaction are approximated to historically formed social categories, from which corresponding identities emerge. The analysis focuses on how binarism surrounding coming out (e.g., hetero/homosexual, out/closeted, and open/secrets) structures multiple interconnected yet hierarchized positions (substance-shadow-penumbra), thereby engendering peripheral sexual identities.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Is a ‘gay identity’ peripheral?
  • 2.Theoretical backgrounds
    • 2.1Approaching sexuality: From desire to identity
    • 2.2Coming out and then back in
    • 2.3From narrative positioning to ‘identity’
  • 3.Data and methods
  • 4.Analysis
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (52)
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