Banks, Autumn (2026) Desire, Disappointment, and (Im)Possibility in Lesbian Literary Reappropriations of the Book of Ruth. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
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Abstract
The Book of Ruth has been a popular subject of queer biblical scholarship since the late 1990s. However, repeated literary reappropriations of Ruth throughout the last century point toward a history of lesbian engagement with the text that both precedes and extends beyond such academic discourse. In this thesis, I argue that fiction works to preserve and produce an archive of feelings that cohere around a lesbian-identified Ruth. What might a continuous return this narrative tell us about the ways that lesbians have carved out spaces for themselves within and around structures of power and oppression? In response to this question, I trace attachments to the Book of Ruth through the novels Pity for Women (1937), Patience & Sarah (1969), Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), and Gideon the Ninth (2019), paying particular attention to feelings of desire and disappointment that animate engagement with the biblical text. While Ruth often functions in these novels as a site of affirmative historical identification and disruption, a pervasive sense of loss complicates any assessment of her place in the lesbian imagination as unambiguously positive. Following work on queer affect by Heather Love and Sara Ahmed, I argue that the Book of Ruth is bound up in a literary tradition of lesbian (im)possibility that has allowed for the text to be interpreted in ways that both fulfill and disappoint. A lesbian-identified Ruth, “sticky” with accumulated affect, therefore offers a valuable glimpse into the feelings and worlds that produced her.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Religions and Cultures |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Banks, Autumn |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M.A. |
| Program: | Religion |
| Date: | 20 March 2026 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Daniel-Hughes, Carly |
| Keywords: | Book of Ruth, Biblical interpretation, Lesbian literature, Lesbian history, Queer literature, Queer history, Affect theory, Literary analysis |
| ID Code: | 996855 |
| Deposited By: | Autumn Banks |
| Deposited On: | 29 Jun 2026 14:18 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Jun 2026 14:18 |
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