Queer Futures

by Kevin P. Murphy (Editor), Jason Ruiz (Editor), David Serlin (Editor)

This issue of the Radical History Review assembles the voices of scholars and activists who engage with critiques of what Lisa Duggan has called “the new homonormativity. . . a politics that does not contest dominant heteronormative assumptions and institutions but upholds and sustains them.” In the time that has elapsed since the Radical History Review’s last explicit foray into queer history — the “Queer” issue, RHR 62 (1995) — this process has been abundantly evident in numerous cultural and political scenes over the past four decades, as this issue’s contributors amply demonstrate. While we do not want to reinforce the notion that the concept of homonormativity originated with or is limited to the confines of academic work, the configuration of homonormativity in current circulation is part of a broader turn toward political economy in contemporary queer academic and activist work. It challenges the preoccupations and objectives of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender)/queer culture and community as many of its members move toward what Gayle Rubin identified, in 1984, as “the charmed circle” of sex — those practices and identities that receive social sanction.2 This issue of RHR asks what this mainstreaming will mean for queer futures. But first, we want to glance backward
at the recent queer past.

Genres: Queer

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2007

About the author

Kevin P. Murphy is a professor at the University of Minnesota who writes about the history of sexuality and public history.

Reviews

[robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

i've known about queer theory for around a year or so, but i never acquired any of the literature of it until i stumbled upon this in a half-price books in march-april-ish of this year. every essay in this issue of RHR goes deep into investigating the queer discourse and its various intersections, and opened me up to oft-forgotten pieces of history that are still just as important now as they were then, if not more so, as well as introducing me to many of the key concepts important to understanding the above, and most importantly, the idea of homonormativity itself. much room is left for the reader to explore related queer zones (which i've started by picking up Nobody Passes, Captive Genders, etc.) and related philosophies (insert de rigueur mention of Foucault here for +5 philosophy points). this journal exhibits probably the best quality literature and theory can have: even if you've read all of the book, it's impossible to finish.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the essays in this will be really helpful for my thesis, and some I couldn't really adapt to my purposes. Overall I like the way these essays approach homonormativity and the continuing work of queer(s)/theory to undermine normative forces and the exclusions those forces necessarily entail.