Part II: DISCOURSES OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY: Chapter 5: THE CREWCUT AS HOMOEROTIC DISCOURSE IN NABOKOV'S PALE FIRE.

This chapter examines issues of gender and sexuality in Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire. The chapter begins by noting a scene in the novel in which Bob, Kinbote's unfaithful young lover, is seen standing mournfully before Judge Goldsmith's house after being thrown out for bringing a red-haired floozy into Kinbote's masculine den of ping-pong and carrot crunching. In this chapter, the author treats the description of Bob as a semiological intersection of some of the novel's most important structuring oppositions: homosexuality versus heterosexuality, the effeminate versus the virile, European versus American, refined intricacy versus naive simplicity, and aristocratic culture versus lower-class barbarism. According to the author, the association of homoerotic feelings with attractions to either the socially marginal or those who eschew cultural refinement is pervasive throughout the novel. The author proceeds to demonstrate that the vertical relations between these sets of oppositions are radically unstable, with the homosexual versus heterosexual opposition threatening to undermine the whole system. Bob's crewcut, Kinbote's windbreaker, and a pair of trousers purchased in Cannes are all treated to the authors penetrating scrutiny.