Narrating the Closet: An Autoethnography of Same-Sex Attraction (Writing Lives)
"Interweaving his own story with interviews, life stories, and media and textual analysis, Tony Adams' Narrating the Closet complicates, theorizes, and enriches our understanding of the closet and the coming out process. Adams explains in a fresh and original way the complexities and potential dangers of coming out, along with the iterative and interactional nature of that process. This book both theorizes the closet and makes that theory real, explicating how the many moments of coming out function in the lives of lesbians and gay men. This is a thought-provoking and highly readable book."- Jacqueline Taylor, Dean, College of Communication, DePaul University"Narrating the Closet: An Autoethnography of Same-Sex Attractionis an eloquent personal and scholarly journey into the challenges, anxieties, and joys of same-sex attraction. Professor Adams provides historical, cultural, and rhetorical implications of the proverbial closet in which so many members of the GLBT community have found themselves. The book thoughtfully weaves observations, reflections, analyses, and insights as it disentangles the coming out process of a co-culture that has been maligned, ridiculed, and hated by a large cross-section of American citizens.Narrating the Closetartfully situates sexual identity as an important personal and mediated life 'orientation' for millions of individuals.  As the U.S. moves toward more measurable tolerance and acceptance of GLBT Americans, Adams’ book will be of particular value.  His work both depicts and honors the 'voices' of those whose life experiences have been misunderstood or ignored.  As you read this extraordinary tome, your heart will break at times and be uplifted at other times.  Throughout, however, you will find a candid, compassionate, and engaged author who embraces an other-centeredness rarely found in any published work."- Richard West, Professor, Emerson College, President, National Communication Association"What Tony E. Adams accomplishes withNarrating the Closetis of great significance. This overdue book creatively and provocatively breaches how many people understand same-sex attraction and the complex and challenging ways this attraction governs interaction, identities and relationships. At once, it illustrates, confronts and reconciles cultural assumptions, expectations and stereotypes in a time when frank and in-depth reflection is often neglected but essential. MethodologicallyNarrating the Closetis an accessible and exhaustive benchmark of meaningful ethnographic research--a scholarly success that bravely and transparently describes the self and its experiences at the service of expanding cultural insight. Indeed, this is a particular story that will speak beautifully to many."- Keith Berry, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Superior"Seldom do words like 'beautiful,' 'wrenching,' and 'loving' appear in the same sentence with 'significant contribution to the literature.' But Tony Adams delivers all of the above inNarrating the Closet.Adams challenges conventional ways of thinking and talking about same-sex attraction. The reader comes to experience the closet as both an existential and a relational space and coming out less as a personal event than as an ongoing emotional, communicative, and political navigation. Framed by the haunting story of a life cut short,Narrating the Closetoffers equal measures of wisdom and vulnerability. A must-read for theorists of communication, relationships, and gay male identity and for those of us aspiring to be compassionate and committed allies to LGBTQ persons and communities."- Lisa Tillmann, Professor, Rollins College, Author ofBetween Gay and Straight: Understanding Friendship Across Sexual Orientation“While it is indeed a scholarly work, as an autoethnographic research,  Tony’s storytelling certainly makes this book accessible for “everyone.”  For the reader who is less interested in the scholarly aspect of the  storytelling, it is possible to be engaged by the stories. For the  reader who is more interested in the scholarly research production, this  book provides a rich contribution for the study of cultures,  particularly of constitutive “invisible” and “ephemeral.”  characteristics, as described by Tony (Adams, 2011). These two  possibilities achieve what I consider to be one of the more beneficial  features of autoethnographic research.... As a family therapist, I could  envision the potential benefits that this research could provide for  therapists, being a good fit with the contextual and relational  perspectives of this field of practice. I also can envision the rich  conversations that a text like this could awaken in classes such as  Human Sexuality. Also, it could be a good reference book for  autoethnographic research, particularly the Appendix section.”—Marcela Polanco, The Qualitative Review“Narrating the Closet would likely appeal to any person interested in  issues surrounding lesbian, gay and bisexual identity.  This interest is  not limited to the academic community, which I believe is one of the  strongest features of this work.  Though the book does read with an  academic tone, the personal narratives and the simple descriptions of  the metaphor of the closet make it a work that would be a worthwhile  read for any same-sex attracted person, their friends, their family,  their allies, and, in fact, their adversaries who are in need of  education.  In short, the book fills a tremendous gap in the literature  and is cross-disciplined enough in nature that it may be a handy  resource for any classroom of the social sciences, liberal arts or  humanities.”—Joshua C. Collins, New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development“Adams (communication, Northeastern Illinois Univ.)--a gay man who  suffered the death of a former lover, possibly a suicide--combines  personal memoir with a description of his research interviewing lesbian  and gay people and doing content analysis of television shows and  movies. After discussing the importance of the subject matter, the  author writes about decisions to enter the closet (to oneself and to  others), to stay in it, and possibly to leave it--including the  paradoxes of these behaviors for the lesbian or gay individual and  others with whom she or he interacts. Finally, he offers advice to  people who have same-sex attractions--and those who interact with  them--with an eye to making being in or leaving the closet more tenable.  He concludes that tolerance between groups can result from mutual  understanding of the various problems involved. In the appendix, he  describes the methods of his research, giving both the positive and  negative aspects of it. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.”—R. W. Smith, CHOICE Magazine“Grounded in storytelling, Narrating the Closet  convincingly models personal vulnerability and academic integrity.  Adam’s narrative style has a poetic rhythm and cadence, inviting the  reader to trust him as a narrator. While scholarly in nature, Narrating  the Closet is accessible to a variety of academic and non-academic  audiences. Scholars interested in gender and sexuality studies, queer  studies, communication studies, and qualitative research will find  Narrating the Closet a beneficial edition to their collection. Adam’s  book extends the boundaries of qualitative research and encourages  scholars to utilize their lived experiences as a site for critical  inquiry. Narrating the Closet also provides advocates with insightful  stories and information that can be used to tackle bullying, harassment,  and LGBQ suicides. Narrating the Closet is an affirmation of LGBQ  identities that reminds young gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer  individuals that they are not alone.”—Stephanie L. Young, Sexuality & Culture“Narrating the Closetis linked to a body of queer and post-queer work which deals with same-sex desire and identityafterqueer theory. It is a work that begins to deconstruct and critically  reflects on the legacy of same-sex desire and culture as well as moving  towards another ‘paradigm shift’ whereby the shibboleths of coming out  of the closet, gay pride and gay consumer culture and capital are as  problematic as they are empowering. Adams’ contribution to this field is  both relevant and original, offering a multifaceted alternative to some  of the facile and supercilious examinations of same-sex desire,  identity politics and representation. The ways in which he examines the  relational and contingent construction of the closet means that his work  can be read as an autobiographical account used as a methodological  resource or read as a critical text in the fields of psychology,  sexuality and identity politics.”—Psychology & Sexuality“In these particular days, the intersections between performance studies and queer studies seems of special importance, particularly as we all struggle with what may feel like competing demands between political action and scholarly perspective. Adams’ book is an eloquent demonstration that there need not be - and perhaps we cannot afford to have - any real distinction between the two. But he leaves all his readers the space to decide how they will make such ethical choices in personal ways. There is much to learn from his example.”—Bruce Henderson, Text and Performance Quarterly“This text would be appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students as well as those of us wanting an excellent example of autoethnography.... Adams’ work expands definitions of culture and what constitutes the field in ethnographic work in a beautifully written piece of autoethnography. I am excited to see where this will take ethnographers in the future, and especially those of us interested in the study of stigmatized and marginalized identities and close relationships.”—Sandra L. Faulkner, The Qualitative Report