Did he live up to what he promised? Theory and Practice of the Gimmick in Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2282-0035/29388

Keywords:

Dennis Cooper, The Sluts, gimmick, queer theory, Leo Bersani

Abstract

This paper aims to read Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts through the theoretical lens of the gimmick, understood as an aesthetic judgment grounded in social detachment, following Sianne Ngai’s definition, and brings it into dialogue with Leo Bersani’s reflections on negativity and the antisocial dimension of homosexual desire. Set in early-2000s online forums, the novel stages a chorus of anonymous voices obsessed with Brad, a young hustler who becomes at once the object of lust, evaluation, and suspicion for the whole users community. By analyzing the characters’ discursive practices, it explores the tensions between anonymity and visibility inherent in queer culture in the digital age. Finally, the paper compares Cooper’s book with Stephen van Dyck’s memoir People I’ve Met From the Internet, showcasing different approaches to representing identity and community in online contexts.

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Author Biography

Biagio Mazzella, Brown University

Biagio Mazzella is a PhD student in the Department of Italian Studies at Brown University. He holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Bologna and was visiting student at the École normale supérieure and the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Keen on queer theory and gender studies, he is the Italian translator of Christopher Chitty’s Sexual Hegemony: Statecraft, Sodomy, and Capital in the Rise of the World System (Meltemi, 2023), Dennis Altman’s Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation (Asterisco, 2024), Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner’s Sex in Public (forthcoming in “Studi culturali”), and, together with Goffredo Polizzi, Leo Bersani’s Is the Rectum a Grave? and Other Essays (forthcoming with Asterisco).

References

ALEXANDER 2020 : J. Alexander, On Dennis Cooper and Becoming-Nothing, «Los Angeles Review of Books» 29 luglio (2020).

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BERLANT - WARNER1998 : L. Berlant – M. Warner, Sex in Public, «Critical Inquiry» 24, 2 (1998), pp. 547-56.

BERSANI 1995 : L. Bersani, Homos, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1995.

BERSANI 2010 : L. Bersani, Is the Rectum a Grave? and Other Essays, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2010.

BUTLER 1993 : J. Butler, Imitation and Gender Insubordination, in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, a cura di H. Abelove, M.A. Barale, D.M. Halperin, New York-London, Routledge, 1993, pp. 307-320.

CAVELL 2005 : S. Cavell, Passionate and Performative Utterance. Morals of Encounter, in Contending with Stanley Cavell, a cura di R.B. Goodman, Oxford-New York, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 177-198.

COOPER 2005 : D. Cooper, The Sluts, New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005.

ENGEL - LYLE 2021 : S.M. Engel – T.S. Lyle, Disrupting Dignity: Rethinking Power and Progress in LGBTQ Lives, New York, NYU Press, 2021.

FÉREZ MORA 2014 : P.A. Férez Mora, Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts: Prosthetic and Performative (Homo)sexuality, «ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies» 35 (2014), pp. 71-88.

HESTER 2020 : D. Hester, Wrong. A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper, Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 2020.

HOCQUENGHEM 2022 : G. Hocquenghem, Il desiderio omosessuale, a cura di C. Lo Iacono, Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2022.

LEV 2006 : L. Lev (a cura di), Enter at Your Own Risk: The Dangerous Art of Dennis Cooper, Madison, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2006.

MILLER 1992 : D.A. Miller, Bringing out Roland Barthes, Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1992.

NGAI 2005 : S. Ngai, Ugly Feelings, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2005.

NGAI 2012 : S. Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2012.

NGAI 2020 : S. Ngai, Theory of the Gimmick. Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form, Cambridge, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020.

RONELL 2008 : A. Ronell, The ÜberReader: Selected Works of Avital Ronell, a cura di D. Davis, Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2008.

RUSZCZYCKY 2021 : S. Ruszczycky, Vulgar Genres. Gay Pornographic Writing and Contemporary Fiction, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2021.

SAKETOPOULOU 2023 : A. Saketopoulou, Sexuality Beyond Consent. Risk, Race, Traumatophilia, New York, NYU Press, 2023.

VAN DYCK 2019 : S. van Dyck, People I’ve Met From the Internet, Los Angeles, Ricochet Editions, 2019.

Copertina Acme, Annali della Facoltà di Studi Umanistici dell'Università degli Studi di Milano, 1-2/2025

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Published

2025-12-29

How to Cite

Mazzella, B. (2025). Did he live up to what he promised? Theory and Practice of the Gimmick in Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts. ACME, 78(1-2), 433–467. https://doi.org/10.54103/2282-0035/29388

Issue

Vol. 78 No. 1-2 (2025)

Section

"Keep reading": on 'The Sluts' of Dennis Cooper (Giuseppe Carrara and Marco Malvestio)

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Biagio Mazzella

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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