queer theory

Linguistic landscapes as pornoheterotopias

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De Vasconcelos Barboza, R.  and Borba, R. (2018) ‘Linguistic landscapes as pornoheterotopias: deregulating gender and sexuality in the public toilet’ Linguistic Landscapes 4 (3) 257-277

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.18005.vas

Drawing on multimodal analysis of graffiti in male public restrooms at the Faculdade de Letras of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, this paper investigates how notions of place and gendered/sexualized subjects are discursively (re)constructed in interactions with the materiality and historicity of the public realm. The analysis focuses on the indexicalities of public signage and the ways they (in)form understandings of and access to certain spaces. By investigating the fragmented history of entextualizations of these toilet graffiti as well as the indexicalities of their lexical, graphic, and co(n)textual aspects, we argue that places can be queered since they are semiotically constructed and discursively performed. The paper illustrates how static assumptions about place, gender, and sexuality can be disrupted and ressignified which highlights the pornoheterotopic character of these public restrooms in which semiotic processes that (de)regulate gender and sexual dissidence are emplaced.

Peter

The Heterotopias of Todd Haynes

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New publication by Victoria L. Smith:

Smith, V. L. (2018) ‘The Heterotopias of Todd Haynes: Creating Space for Same Sex Desire in Carol’ Film Criticism 42 (1)

Full text available.

Image result for image from todd haynes Carol

Abstract

Using Foucault’s concept of heterotopia (an “other space”), this essay contends space is key to understanding Haynes’s Carol. It examines how Haynes, through his meticulous attention to framings, textures, color, and spatial relations, creates a queer counter space, time, and look—a rejection of early 1950s social and sexual propriety.

Peter

16 April 2018

Pornotopia-Heterotopia

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The recent death of Playboy magnet Hugh Hefner coincided with reading ‘Pornotopia’, Beatriz Preciado’s essay on Playboy’s architecture and biopolitics. Although I have misgivings about the book’s potpourri of spatial concepts (one example, tossing in Marin’s complex notion of the ‘neutral’ with no support or justification), chapter 6 concerning the Playboy Mansion raises some interesting relationships with heterotopia, particularly through comparisons with eighteenth century French architect Nicolas Ledoux’s ideal designs for ‘houses of pleasure’.  The book is useful in starting to trace how heterotopias mutate through the introduction of new forms of communication technology, forming new subjectivities.

Preciado, B. (2014) Pornotopia, New York: Zone Books.

Peter

6 October 2017

Queer and Trans Embodiment in Schools

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Chapter in new publication:

Kjaran, J. I. (2017) ‘Ethical Relationality and Heterotopic Spaces in Schools’ in J. I. Kjaran (ed.) Constructing Sexualities and Gendered Bodies in School Spaces 147-175.

This chapter takes up a particular Foucauldian analysis to address questions of queer and trans embodiment in schools. It particularly draws on Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, the space of other, and technologies or practices of the self. The question of how space and spatiality is made and remade through embodiment and social interactions is central to this chapter. Moreover, various strategies queer subjects use to transgress and resist heteronormativity and gender normativities, in the sense of expanding the limits of intelligibility and actively confronting homophobia/transphobia, are described and analyzed. Empirical examples are also given of how LGBTQ students constitute themselves, by telling the “truth” about their gendered and/or sexual self within the context of schools.

Peter

17 July 2017

Queer Pedagogy

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A new publication:

Larsson, H., Quennerstedt, M., Öhman, M. (2014) Heterotopias in physical education: towards a queer pedagogy? Gender and Education 26 (2)

Abstract
This article sets out to outline how prevailing gender structures can be challenged in physical education (PE) by exploring queer potentials in an event that took place during a dancing lesson in an upper secondary PE class. The event and its features were documented through video recording and post-lesson interviews with the teacher and some of the students. It is argued that the event can be seen as a heterotopia, according to Michel Foucault a ‘counter-site’ enabling the resistance to authority, where the production of normalcy was challenged. Furthermore, even though the event happened spontaneously, the authors suggest that it can show a way towards a queer pedagogy for PE through teaching paradoxically; it indicates a preferred ethos of the lesson and the use of conceptual tools by teachers and students that make them able to intervene in the production of normalcy.

physical_ed_ltr_1

 

Peter

24 June 2014

Narratives from the Muslim Underground

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Article by Fatima El-Tayeb

El-Tayeb, F. (2013) ‘Time Travelers and Queer Heterotopias: Narratives from the Muslim Underground’ The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory. 88 (3) 305-319.

Abstract

This article suggests the existence of a spatio-temporal regime of knowledge production in Germany that configures racialized populations as a contradiction in terms, both spatially and temporally displaced within a heteronormative discourse of nation, gender, sexuality, and religion that assigns communities of colour a position both outside Europe and outside modernity. This regime is currently most evident in discourses around the nation’s Muslim communities as living in ostensibly archaic, anti-modern “parallel societies.” Using the trope of travel narratives and their employment of gender and sexuality, I trace the epistemological placement of “German” and “Muslim” as mutually exclusive opposites and end by proposing that this (dis)placement is not only a source of exclusion but also potentially the means by which alternative spatio-temporal models emerge that defy this opposition and the social logic behind it.

Peter

25 February 2014

Knut Åsdam

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20 January 2014

Over the next few weeks, I will be concentrating on the work of Knut Åsdam ,a Norwegian artist whose work, including installations, photographs and videos,  often intermingles with Foucault’s ‘other spaces’. For example, in a series of installations, The Care of the Self (1999–2007) Åsdam :

‘….. has created night-time parks with a dark lush interior in an architecture of trees, plants, grass and flowers. Here Åsdam blurs the psychological and physical boundaries between the viewer and the night-time park of the city; the temporary space for teenage hangouts, drug trafficking and sexual cruising. At the same time as representing a temporary space of release, the night-time park is also a part of the very mythology and narrative of the city.

from introduction to Art Now: Knut Asdam:  Tate Britain: 2000

I have previously mentioned Åsdam’s essay ‘Heterotopia – Art, pornography and cemeteries’ (see below) but I also strongly recommend his website which opens up a treasure trove of heterotopias.

Peter

knut-asdam-article-pdf

 

Topical bibliography

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14 June 2013

I have added a bibliography sorted under the following topics and themes.

1 Foucault on Space – 10 items

2 Towards an overall theory of, or approach to, heterotopia – 26 items

3 Specific topics:

3.1 Art and Architecture – 18 items

3.2 Communication, Film and Media Studies – 18 items

3.3 Death Studies – 5 items

3.4 Digital and Cyberspace Studies – 10 items

3.5 Gender, Sexuality and Queer Studies – 17 items

3.6 Education Studies – 12 items

3.7 Literary, Science Fiction and Theatre Studies – 32 items

3.8 Marketing and Tourism – 3 items

3.9 Museum and Library Studies – 8 items

3.10 Political Studies 14 – items

3.11 Space and Place – miscellaneous – 12 items

Download topical bibliography bibliography topic in pdf (june 2013)

Peter

Queer ecology

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4 October 2012

I gave advance notice about this article by Matthew Gandy which is now published. Has some interesting links with the essay by the artist Knut Åsdam (see last post).

Gandy, M.  (2012) ‘Queer ecology: nature, sexuality, and heterotopic alliances’ Environment and Planning D, Society and Space 30: 4 727-747.

Abstract

This paper explores the interdisciplinary terrain of ‘queer ecology’ by using the example of an urban cemetery in North London as an empirical and conceptual starting point. Though the term ‘queer ecology’ has cropped up a few times it has yet to be addressed directly in order to consider how the seemingly disparate fields of queer theory and urban ecology might benefit from closer interaction. It will be suggested that the theoretical synthesis represented by queer ecology serves to expand the conceptual and material scope of both fields: queer theory is revealed to have only a partially developed engagement with urban nature whilst critical strands of urban ecology such as urban political ecology have yet to connect in a systematic way with queer theory, posthumanism, or new conceptions of complexity emerging from within the science of ecology itself. It is concluded that queer ecology may enrich our understanding of both urban materiality and the role of metaphors in urban theory. In particular, the idea of queer ecology illuminates the possibility for site-specific ‘heterotopic alliances’ in the contemporary city.
Keywords: Abney Park Cemetery, queer ecology, queer theory, urban ecology, urban political ecology, urban nature, heterotopia, posthumanism

Art, pornography and cemeteries

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4 October 2012

I was pleased to discover this short essay, ‘Heterotopia: art, pornography and cemeteries’, written by the artist Knut Åsdam.

Knut Åsdam lives and works in Oslo, Norway. The work of the artist has gained global recognition and has been displayed in prestigious art institutions, such as Tate Modern and Tate Britain (UK), MoMA (USA), Moderna Museet (Sweden), and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (France).

knut asdam essay pdf

His website is also worth visiting, including information related to his exhibition entitled ‘The Care of Self’. His current work is showing in Lithuania.

Peter

Heterotopia and queer ecology

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Forthcoming publication:

Gandy, M.  (2012) ‘Queer ecology: nature, sexuality, and heterotopic alliances’

Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, advance online publication.

Abstract: This paper explores the interdisciplinary terrain of ‘queer ecology’ by using the example of an urban cemetery in North London [Abney Wood] as an empirical and conceptual starting point. Though the term ‘queer ecology’ has cropped up a few times it has yet to be addressed directly in order to consider how the seemingly disparate fields of queer theory and urban ecology might benefit from closer interaction. It will be suggested that the theoretical synthesis represented by queer ecology serves to expand the conceptual and material scope of both fields: queer theory is revealed to have only a partially developed engagement with urban nature whilst critical strands of urban ecology such as urban political ecology have yet to connect in a systematic way with queer theory, posthumanism, or new conceptions of complexity emerging from within the science of ecology itself. It is concluded that queer ecology may enrich our understanding of both urban materiality and the role of metaphors in urban theory. In particular, the idea of queer ecology illuminates the possibility for site-specific ‘heterotopic alliances’ in the contemporary city.

Abney Wood Cemetery Entrance