As if! : queer criticism across difference /
"As If! excavates the post-structuralist, anti-identitarian genealogies of queer studies to develop a mode of auto-theoretical scholarly writing which Chase Gregory call "as if!" criticism. Returning to early queer literary theorists, Gregory sees "as if!" criticism as emplo...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Durham :
Duke University Press,
2025.
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| Series: | Theory Q.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "As If! excavates the post-structuralist, anti-identitarian genealogies of queer studies to develop a mode of auto-theoretical scholarly writing which Chase Gregory call "as if!" criticism. Returning to early queer literary theorists, Gregory sees "as if!" criticism as employing a somewhat campy and performative method of cross-identification that contrasts with the renewed reverence for coherent and authorizing identity characterizing most contemporary thought. Gregory reads the early work of four literary critics: Robert Reid-Pharr, a gay Black man identifying as part of a community of Black lesbian friends and critics; Deborah McDowell, a straight Black feminist writing about lesbian desire; Barbara Johnson, a white lesbian writing about and through Black-authored texts; and Eve Sedgwick, a straight white woman writing about gay men. Using these four critics as case studies of a larger trend within AIDS-era queer literary criticism, As If! not only asks why these authors are compelled to write across identity categories, but also what might be gained from their staged scenes of cross-identification. Tracking patterns of attempted relation met by impasse, As If! shows how writers who employ "as if!" criticism perform the breakdown of the social relation, especially within those fields influenced by queer theory, deconstructionist feminist theory, and black feminist theory"-- |
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| Physical Description: | xiii, 184 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781478032120 147803212X 9781478028895 1478028890 |