Queering a Trans Life Story: The Unnatural Potential of Weak Narrativity in succubus in my pocket

Abstract

Discussing similarities between antimimetic and queer/trans narratives, as well as interlacing subjects of interest in the respective fields of unnatural and queer/trans narratology, this article suggests the importance of experimental texts for theorizing trans narratives. It presents its arguments by focusing on one case study, a mixed genre manuscript written in 2004 and published in 2015, succubus in my pocket by the late trans poet kari edwards (1954–2006). My approach mines queer narratology (Susan Lanser), trans poetics (Trace Peterson), unnatural narratology (Brian Richardson), and the study of narrative poetry (Brian McHale) for conceptual tools to discuss how an extremely antimimetic narrative entwines transgressions of narrative expectations with transgressions of expectations about sex and gender. The work invites narrative interpretations of sequential events based on causal expectations while consistently refuting default interpretive strategies. This article shows how weak narrativity can be deployed as a critique of narrative sense-making processes in general and, more particularly, of conventional progression in narratives about trans lives.