Textual immaturity: bisexuality, textuality and adolescence

The article takes a common stereotype of bisexuality - as ‘immature'-and repurposes it as textual immaturity. The adolescent is a temporally in-between figure, sited ambiguously between past and future - a position analogous to that into which bisexuality is cast in monosexist discourse. Thus, bisexualities become a point from which to approach literary texts ‘immaturely'.The article argues that the positioning of bisexuality as a phase en route to fixed monosexual identity is a product of a broader investment in teleological narratives of maturation. Given its distinct relations to narrative temporality when denigrated as ‘immature,' a critical focus on bisexuality can offer a site for resistance to this restrictive narrativity. The Buddha of Suburbia proves an exemplary text. The article reads Hanif Kureishi's novel, TV adaptation, and David Bowie's album in order to explore their bisexual textuality.