Queer Theory and Literary Study

Friday, March 31st 2023

Pr. Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet, UNIL

Dr. Matthew Scully

Dr. Xine Yao, University College London

Dr. Kevin Ohi, Boston College

Since its institutionalization by the academy-an institutional status that remains open to interrogation, critique, and subversion-queer theory has profoundly shaped the field of literary studies. To "queer" a text has become a common expression, and "queerness" has influenced both identitarian and anti-identitarian positions, as well as social and anti-social interventions. In this sense, queer theory situates itself both with and against other approaches to gender and sexuality, including psychoanalysis, feminism(s), gender studies, and trans theory. From its inception, and despite being a late 20th-century discourse, queer theory has also deliberately cultivated strategic modes of anachronism (e.g., Valerie Rohy) or "unhistoricism" (e.g., Valerie Traub). Evidence of these approaches can be seen in the well-known collection, Shakesqueer (2011), or more recently in a special issue of postmedieval on queer medieval manuscripts (2018). Beyond this impressive historical scope, queer theory intervenes across a range of fields. There have been productive, if at times contentious, encounters among queer theory and black studies (e.g., Calvin Warren and Lee Edelman), "brownness" (e.g., José Esteban Muñoz), ecology (e.g., Sam See), and Marxism (e.g., Kevin Floyd and Christopher Chitty). This one-day event will invite doctoral students and other scholars to consider the place of queer theory in literary studies today within their respective fields. The event also aims to engage with some of the most recent scholarly developments, debates, and contributions in queer theory and queer literary study to (re)introduce doctoral students to the range of possibilities such conversations have inaugurated.

UNIL

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