Queering the Fall in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain: Queer negotiations and the American audience

Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005) belongs to the body of American cinematic production that has spawned numerous debates regarding portrayals of homosexuality. Specifically, the focus of much of this particular film’s analysis to date has been on its queering of the western genre and its queer(ed) representation of America’s iconic cowboy figure. However, this article proposes that another queering process, concerning the myth of the Fall, runs parallel to the queering of the genre. Applying this particular biblical myth to Brokeback Mountain’s narrative allows for a more complete understanding of how the film deals with the subject matter of homosexuality as well as the purposes of its queering processes in terms of reception. What is ultimately argued here is that the film’s queering of genre/myth is a process of re-historicization that restores queer subjectivity within a rather rigid heteronormative canon.