Forgetting and Remembering Lesbian Pulp: Shame, Recuperation and Queer History

Writing Shame ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 45-96
Author(s):  
Kaye Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Pulp Fiction ◽  
Gender And Race ◽  
Queer History ◽  
A Site

Chapter 1 begins with Michael Warner’s question, ‘What will we do with our shame?’, and proceeds to consider, and to critique, the revisiting of shame in much recent queer theory – a revisiting that generally seeks to mine that affect for its positive political potential. The chapter assesses the uses and limitations of ‘queer shame’, via a consideration, first, of contemporary queer theory, and second, of the recent republication – and implied ‘recuperation’ – of the formerly shameful sub-genre of mid-century lesbian pulp fiction. Through readings of Ann Bannon’s Women in the Shadows (1959/2002) and Della Martin’s Twilight Girl (1961/2006), the chapter focuses particularly on questions concerning the (in)visibility and (un)intelligibility of gender and race, and matters of performance and ‘passing’. It shows how, in both novels, non-whiteness becomes a site of both fascination and shame, functioning indeed as both an intensifier of queer shame and a mirror of/analogy for that shame, in what might be viewed as a troubling case of shame appropriation.

Mortuary practices, problems, and analysis

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Harding
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
Final Disposal ◽  
The Dead ◽  
A Site

Archaeological investigation is sometimes likened to opening a window on to the past. The problem is that, except in cases of unexpected and sudden disaster, for example where a shipwreck has been preserved untouched or a town was engulfed by volcanic ash, the archaeologist never examines a site as it was in its living heyday, only as it was after it had been abandoned, leaving only what survives of what its occupants chose to leave behind. Burials likewise represent only what communities chose to deposit for whatever reason, modified by taphonomic factors that determine the state of surviving evidence. Other ephemeral forms of disposal, and any elaborate or protracted rituals that preceded the final act of deposition that did not involve substantive structures, will pass unremarked in the archaeological record. It has been suggested in Chapter 1 that human remains may have been buried either in a dedicated cemetery where the dead were segregated or confined, perhaps in the equivalent of consecrated ground, or integrated within the environs of settlements, whether as complete or near-complete bodies or as fragmented parts or individual bones. A third option, of course, and one which would certainly contribute to the difficulty of tracing a regular burial rite archaeologically, would be segregated burial on an individual basis rather than in a community group, however small or selective. The concept of a cemetery assumes a degree of social cohesion in Iron Age practice which may not have been universal. An obvious question must be why should there have been these alternatives, and what might have governed the decision as to which alternative should be adopted? Ethnographic analogies suggest that the spirits of the dead could have been regarded as malevolent, more especially during the interim phase between death and completion of decomposition. So it might make sense to consign the dead directly to a dedicated cemetery that was detached from the settlement, or to confine them initially within a secure location, such as a hillfort, for excarnation or interim burial, before final disposal.

Bodies and Heroes

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Brian R. Doak
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
National Body ◽  
A Site ◽  
Significant Attention ◽  
Ancient Texts

Chapter 1 opens the terms of exploration for the study—defining the “hero” as one who acts at the intersection of warrior, royal, and founding roles. Biblical authors paid significant attention to the bodies of their heroes and saw the heroic body as a primal source of meaning. Moreover, these authors saw bodily features as communicating a message about that character’s story and fate. These heroic bodies eventually tell a story—narrating Israel’s composition as a corporate and national body, then the flourishing of that body in royal exemplars, and then the dissolution of that body. The chapter gives a genealogy of how various scholars have explored the body as a site of interpretation, highlighting the different ways biblical interpreters have engaged with body themes. Other key problems are explored, such as the reticence of ancient authors to describe bodies and problems associated with comparing ancient texts with one another.

scholarly journals A Dialogue on the Constructions of GLBT and Queer Ethos: “I Belong to a Culture That Includes …”

Humanities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Jane Hoogestraat ◽  
Hillery Glasby
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Normal Heart ◽  
Rhetorical Agency ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
Yom Kippur ◽  
A Site

Invoking a dialogue between two scholars, authors Jane Hoogestraat and Hillery Glasby discuss the exigence for, construction of, and differentiation between LGBT and queer ethos. Drawing from Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart and the construction of a gay identity, the text explores connections between queer theory, LGBT(Q) ethos, and queer futurity, ultimately arguing for a more nuanced and critical understanding of the undecidability and performativity of LGBT and queer ethos. In framing LGBT and queer ethos as being at the same time a self and socially constructed and mediated—legitimate and illegitimate—ethos can be understood not only as a site for rhetorical agency, but also as an orientation and a form of activism. Finally, the text offers a case study of Adrienne Rich’s “Yom Kippur,” which is a poem that offers a queer (and) Jewish perspective on identity—from an individual and community level—exhibiting both an LGBT and queer ethos.

A Genealogy of Queer Detachment

PMLA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
pp. 648-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Burroughs Price
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Social World ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Weimar Germany ◽  
Queer History

Despite their widespread attention to the conluence of queer sexualities and “decadence” in in- de- siècle writing, queer theorists have yet to overcome the two concepts' persistently destructive conlation. his essay explores the latent positive ainities of queerness and decadence in Walter Pater's Renaissance, which links them through what I call queer detachment. A balance of engagement with and withdrawal from history, this critical perspective anticipates queer theory's methodologies as well as other queer modernist productions. Examining Goodbye to Berlin, Christopher Isherwood's chronicle of decadent Weimar Germany, I demonstrate how queer detachment becomes an increasingly politicized method of literary and social world making, a means of reengaging the politics and aesthetics of queer history. hese works, and others like them, encourage scholars to realize decadence's positivity, to conceptualize a queer theory that refuses to acquiesce to residual historical narratives and philosophical systems—without, for all that, refusing their value entirely.

scholarly journals Queer Bodies, Queer Lives in China English Contact Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. Paiz ◽  
Anthony Comeau ◽  
Junhan Zhu ◽  
Jingyi Zhang ◽  
Agnes Santiano
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Short Story ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Fiction Writing ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
China English ◽  
Ha Jin ◽  
Queer Spaces ◽  
A Site ◽  
Post Cultural Revolution

Abstract Ha Jin and his works have contributed significantly to world Englishes knowledge, both through direct scholarly engagement with contact literatures and through the linguistic creativity exhibited in his works of fiction (Jin 2010). His fiction writing also acts as a site of scholarly inquiry (e.g., Zhang 2002). Underexplored, however, are how local varieties of English as used to create queer identities. This paper will seek to address this gap by exploring how Ha Jin created queer spaces in his short story “The Bridegroom.” This investigation will utilize a Kachruvian world Englishes approach to analyzing contact literatures (B. Kachru 1985, 1990, Y. Kachru & Nelson 2006, Thumboo 2006). This analysis will be supported by interfacing it with perspectives from the fields of queer theory and queer linguistics (Jagose 1996, Leap & Motschenbacher 2012), which will allow for a contextually sensitive understanding of queer experiences in China. This approach will enable us to examine how Ha Jin utilized the rhetorical and linguistic markers of China English to explore historical attitudes towards queerness during the post-Cultural Revolution period. These markers include the use of local idioms and culturally-localized rhetorical moves to render a uniquely Chinese queer identity.

scholarly journals In and/or/plus Out: Queering the Closet

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (Winter) ◽  
pp. 290-306
Author(s):  
Ahmed Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
A Site ◽  
Disciplinary Technology

By enacting a reflexive return to our initial encounters with the ambiguous and multivalenced potential offered by queerness, I locate and piece together the traces of an always already lost/forcibly disappeared network that is constantly unfolding nonetheless. Taken together, these individual/ized encounters form structures of queer knowing, moving, and feeling that counter this individualization, which I argue is an integral part of the repertoire of techniques designed to foreclose the potential of a queer collective. It is with this in mind that I posit what I call authoritarian heterosexuality as a particular and particularly potent political regime, one that is entangled in colonial legacies and local sedimentations that inform the contemporary Egyptian state’s attitudes towards queers specifically, and towards its citizenry more broadly. And by using this affective material as my entry point into an analysis of what queer might really mean here, I am able to reveal the traces of this violating constitution. Put differently, by engaging in a structural analysis of diverse articulations and experiences of queerness, I am simultaneously engaging in an analysis of the ways in which authoritarian regimes, in their efforts to eradicate queerness, end up producing it along lines that are perhaps illegible when read with the optic of traditional queer theory. To this end, I will be foregrounding my analysis in “the closet” as both a material artifact and disciplinary technology of this heterosexist regime that works to impress a damaging sense of individualism in subjects, as well as a site of potential for queers to collectivize, once the inconsistencies and similarities between such designations as “in” and “out,” “private” and “public,” and “individual” and “collective” are parsed out.

scholarly journals Patroni ulic i placów w miasteczku akademickim Uniwersytetu Warmińsko-Mazurskiego w Kortowie

1970 ◽  
pp. 181-199
Author(s):  
Joanna Maria Garbula Joanna Maria Garbula
Keyword(s):  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
The Past ◽  
Places Of Memory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dairy Science ◽  
The Rich ◽  
A Site ◽  
The University ◽  
Rich History

This article revolves around the memory of a site, i.e. the past captured in sources, reported memories of witnesses of events and symbols. The examples of such places of memory examined here are the streets and squares on the UWM Kortowo campus. They consist of references to the past which has significance for contemporary times. The article consists of an introduction and two chapters. The introduction presents the rich history of Kortowo, spanning several centuries from the Old Prussian settlements to the establishment of the University of Warmia and Masuria in Olsztyn. Chapter 1 is dedicated to the history of the streets and squares on the Kortowo campus from the time when, to make the academic community’s life easier, the university authorities gave names to the streets on the campus, following the specific faculties’ suggestions. The streets were named after M. Oczapowski (an agronomist, theorist of agriculture, pioneer of agricultural experimentation), R. Prawocheński (an expert in animal husbandry), J. Licznerski (a pioneer of modern dairy science), K. Obitz (Doctor of veterinary medicine, a journalist, a social activist in Masuria), J. Hevelius (an astronomer from Gdansk), B. Dybowski (a biologist and traveller), C. Kanafojski (Professor of automation in agriculture). Chapter 2 presents short biographies of three of the seven street patrons: B. Dybowski, K. Obitz and R. Prawocheński, who are the most characteristic and multi-dimensional figures. The names of the streets reflect the memory of the scientific, social and personal achievements of these individuals, at the same time justifying their selection as patrons.

scholarly journals Queering Fieldwork in Religion

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Greenough
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Religion And Theology ◽  
A Site ◽  
Practical Level

Scholars undertaking fieldwork in religion and theology engage on a practical level with participants/communities in order to understand religion as a living phenomenon. This article engages with queer theory as an approach to exploring the faith lives of non-normative Christians, by engaging with online communities. The article sets out the benefits and risks in terms of conducting such research in this way. Mobilizing queer theory is a challenging approach to research, as it questions established norms. It raises suspicions about what is perceived as normal and contests such perceptions by exploring those excluded. As queer is categorized by rupture to the “normal”, it serves as a catalyst to disrupt normative, established modes of research. Traditionally, fieldwork has often privileged notions of objectivity, emphasizing the role of the researcher in codified terms of neutrality. In the spirit of rupture, I offer personal and professional reflections on my ethnographic endeavours. The final section of this article discusses the subjective role of the researcher, noting how the positionality of the researcher can be a site of conflict.

Lipstick Revolutionaries

Ricanness ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 35-72
Author(s):  
Sandra Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Presentation Of Self ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Subject ◽  
A Site ◽  
Queen Mother

Chapter 1 begins with Dolores “Lolita” Lebrón Sotomayor and fellow members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party staging an armed assault against the US Congress in 1954. The author analyzes Lebrón’s actions to expose how she offers death as a way to access subjectivity. She highlights the resilience of the subject who refuses the call to suicide, and instead offers us a recitation for Being. In paying attention to Lebrón’s bodily endurance as evidence of her desire to offer death for the independence of Puerto Rico, the author asserts that as a colonial subject the only thing that she owns upon entry into the world is her death. An understanding of her death drive is linked to Lebrón’s presentation of self, challenging the androgynous view of a female revolutionary. The important aesthetic details of her performance are not antithetical to other markers that claim and seek to trivialize her: beauty queen, mother of the nation, femme fatale, beautiful convoy, and hysterical, suicidal depressive. Lebrón is more than a sacrificing mother, a pathological terrorist, or an accomplice to male leaders; she stages a site through which to dismantle Rican patriarchy and restage death, both imposed and re-created by colonialism.

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