Same, same but other: over-sameness as sexual otherness

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between the uncanny and dissident sexualities by attending to one of the aspects of the uncanny that is linked to the notion of queerness: the trope of the double as manifested in the figure of the narcissistic lesbian couple. The queer uncanny, it suggest, affords new ways of thinking about otherness and facilitates a critique of heterosexist epistemology that presumes a particular relation to the other. The chapter seeks to demonstrate how the image of the narcissistic lesbian may offer itself up as a form of queer resistance by embracing its assumed connection to the death drive and stasis. In order to do so the chapter discusses figures of sexual otherness that emerge out of an over-investment (by heteronormative standards) in sameness, exemplified by the uncanny image of the narcissistic lesbian doubles or ‘false twins’, touching upon examples of such representations from both mainstream popular culture and lesbian literature.