Queering Desire and Identity: A Textual Analysis of Ali Smith's “Free Love” Through Queer Theory

Ali Smith’s Free Love and Other Stories (1995) is a collection of twelve stories that engages readers instantaneously with their universal appeal. In this debut collection of stories, Ali Smith explores the issues of sexuality, identity, and memory, among many other issues. The fluid nature of these subjects makes an interesting case for examining these stories to discover fresh insights for a better understanding of her stories. This paper takes up the first story, “Free Love,” for analysis using the analytical framework of Queer Theory. The story highlights a teenage girl’s sexual encounters during a trip to Amsterdam. This early work of Smith made a prompt impression in the literary circles for the kind of subjects it deals with. In this story, she engages with the ideas of sexual fluidity, gender flexibility, identity exploration, and the subversion of heteronormative principles. Using the queer theory lens for the textual analysis of the story, this paper tries to foreground that “Free Love” presents a provocative critique of heteronormativity and identity politics.