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Volume 9, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 2055-5695
  • E-ISSN: 2055-5709

Abstract

The Dead Lesbian Syndrome, part of the Bury Your Gays trope, is characterized by the death of lesbian and bisexual women characters, and it undermines a sense of lesbian futures. This article argues that although the relationship between the Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan (or ‘Thasmin’) in (2005–present) does end in the Doctor’s regeneration, it is not an example of the Dead Lesbian Syndrome. Drawing on the work of the Black studies scholar Katherine McKittrick, this article claims that the deliberately inclusive version of the show created around the Thirteenth Doctor depicts lesbian futurity through a combination of non-linear time and the erotic relationality of what Marilyn Farwell terms ‘lesbian narrative space’. It suggests that through this focus on relationality and multiple irreducible forms of temporality Thasmin becomes a different kind of story about women being together.

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2024-11-26
2024-12-14
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): femslash; futurity; narrative space; paratext; relationality; temporality

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