Queerness has long been associated with a drag on heteronormative progress and the trope of turning back. In this thesis, I explore this problematic association between Queerness and backwardness through analysing temporal and spatial actions of turning back. I argue that retreats into semi-enclosed, closet-like spaces in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway create an antisocial sociality that refigures heteronormative configurations of time and space through actions of turning back, resulting in an uncoupling of heteronormative notions of productivity from social connection.