Call Me Queer: Queer theory and the Soundtrack of Call Me by Your Name

Abstract

This thesis aims to bring the field of queer theory and film music analysis closer together by exploring the role of music in constructing a representation and experience of queer desire in the film Call Me by Your Name. It proposes a reading of music in film as being able to call into question hegemonic norms of gender and sexuality by tracing the soundtrack as Michel Foucault’s technologies of the self. Such an analysis of these practices shows that, while the analysis of music on a representational level offers fruitful insights for the construction and confession of queer desires through music, the queering powers of music are probably best understood through the way it affects our bodies. It will therefore not only explore the soundtrack through its pre-existing context, performance, and lyrics, but also through its materialistic qualities in order to show how the soundtrack invites its audience to take on a queer subject position.