Narrating the Closet: An Autoethnography of Same-Sex Attraction

Motivated by the death of his partner, Adams seeks to redefine the closet as a relational construct between all people and all sexualities. The closet is explored at each stage--entering it, inhabiting it, and coming out of it--and strategies are offered for reframing difficult closet experiences. Adams makes use of interviews, personal narratives, and autoethnography to analyze lived, relational experiences of sexuality. This is a must have for scholars and students of gender studies, qualitative research, and for any reader who has felt the closet's reach.

Tony E. Adams is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Media and Theatre at Northeastern Illinois University.