If queer space did exist separately to ‘normal’ space, what
would it be? If queer by its abnormality and unconventionality then the
afterlife is a queer space. The Innocents (Clayton, 1961) can be queered
as the environment is haunted by paranormal entities. In the film the ghosts don’t
exist in a physical space, rather a void that blurs the boundaries between
spaces of life and death. The queer space that Miss Jessel and Quint inhabit,
or rather non-space, allows them to act freely, or appear to. Perhaps humanity
should seek to inhabit a non-space in which they too can act freely. Despite
having argued that ghosts can exist within a queer space, the one we are
referencing still operates as a space. For a space to be truly queer, it would need
to oppose any constructs of a space; it would not be a location or a
destination. “Queer uses
of time and space develop, at least in part, in opposition […], they also
develop according to other logics of location, movement, and identification”
(Judith Halberstam, 1). The queer space that Quint is trapped
in cannot be a space because a queer space, by definition, cannot be entered.
In essence, queer spaces are not spaces for queer things, they are spaces of non-space.
