Queer Theory : An Introduction

by Jagose, Annamarie

• ISBN13: 9780814742341
• ISBN10: 0814742343
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-03-01
• Publisher: Ingram Publisher Services, Inc.

Summary

The political and academic appropriation of the term queer over the last several years has marked a shift in the study of sexuality from a focus on supposedly essential categories as gay and lesbian to more fluid or queer notions of sexual identity. Yet queer is a category still in the process of formation. InQueer Theory, Annamarie Jagose provides a clear and concise explanation of queer theory, tracing it as part of an intriguing history of same-sex love over the last century.Blending insights from prominent theorists such as Judith Butler and David Halperin, Jagose argues that queer theory's challenge is to create new ways of thinking, not only about fixed sexual identities such as heterosexual and homosexual, but also about other supposedly essential notions such as sexuality and gender and even man and woman.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(6)
Theorising Same-Sex Desire	7	(15)
What is homosexuality exactly?	7	(3)
The invention of homosexuality	10	(6)
Homosexuality and heterosexuality	16	(6)
The Homophile Movement	22	(8)
Gay Liberation	30	(14)
Lesbian Feminism	44	(14)
Limits of Identity	58	(14)
Queer	72	(29)
Homosexual, lesbian or gay, queer	72	(3)
The post-structuralist context of queer	75	(8)
Performativity and identity	83	(10)
HIV/AIDS discourse	93	(3)
Queer identity	96	(5)
Contestations of Queer	101	(26)
Afterword	127	(6)
Notes	133	(4)
Bibliography	137	(13)
Index	150