“Strange and Wild”: Towards an Aesthetics of Ambivalence

Abstract

I conclude with a close reading of Maggie Nelson’s work of ‘auto-theory,’ The Argonauts (2015). Here, I employ a framework of ambivalence to argue that Nelson’s text is mired in simultaneity and contradiction. As such, it extends the applicability of ambivalence not just beyond the mother-child relationship but beyond the maternal itself, illuminating its potential to inform all facets of life in meaningful ways. A genre-defying mash-up of memoir, poetics and critical theory, The Argonauts traces the relationship and subsequent queer family making between Nelson and her fluidly gendered partner, Harry Dodge. Devoid of chapters or subheadings, the book is structurally innovative, pieced together from fragments and anecdotes that draw on Nelson’s own life, alongside seemingly disparate and unconnected examples from theory, art, queer politics and popular culture. I argue that in making visible her own visceral, sexual and intercorporeal maternal encounters, Nelson foregrounds the ethical potential presented by the maternal to expand hegemonic understandings in radical ways. In doing so, Nelson’s depiction of motherhood in The Argonauts not only queers conventional heteronormative understandings of maternity but offers a representation of a resilient mother who is informed by—not at the mercy of—her own ambivalence.