Strange/Queer Temporalities in Jackie Kay’s Trumpet

Abstract

This study explores the strange/queer temporalities in Jackie Kay’s novel Trumpet and investigates how transgender experiences and narratives can effectively subvert the prevailing view of time as a linear and normative concept. Taking the initial cue from Sara Ahmed’s concept of “Queer Vandalism”, which underscores marginalised identities’ deliberate resistance against societal constructs, the study centres on Kay’s protagonist, Joss Moody, a transgender jazz trumpeter, and examines the tension between individual identity and societal conformity in relation to time. Diverging from mainstream representations of transgender individuals, which often risk pathologising their experiences, Kay’s novel vividly illustrates how Joss Moody defies norms by living as a man while biologically female, bringing into plain view societal reactions when his female body is posthumously revealed. A special emphasis is placed on the transformative role of Jazz in Joss’s self-reconstruction and temporal liberation. The article concludes with a discussion of the novel genre’s capacity to venture into unconventional temporal dimensions and disrupt normative narratives.