Lesbian Utopics PDF
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LESBIAN UTOPICS LESBIAN UTOPICS Annamarie Jagose ~ ~ ~~o~~!;n~~~up NEW YORK AND LONDON Published in 1994 by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 711 Third Avenue New York, NY10017 Published in Great Britain in 1994 by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN Copyright © 1994 by Roudedge Chapter 2, Chapter 6, and part of Chapter 1 previously appeared in, respectively, Genders (Spring 1992), published by the University of Texas Press, Feminism and the Politics of Difference, Sneja Gunew and Anna Yeatman eds. (Allen & Unwin, 1993), and The journal of the History of Sexuality (October 1993), published by the University of Chicago Press. The author gratefully acknowledges their permission to reprint these pieces, in revised form, in this volume. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photo- copying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publications Data j agose, Annamarie. Lesbian utopics I Annamarie )agose. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0--415-91018-3. - ISBN 0--415-91019-6 1. Lesbianism. 2. Feminism. 3. Critical theory. 4. Feminist theory I. Tide. HQ75.5.J34 1994 305.48'9664-dc20 94-27402 CIP Contents Acknowledgements vii 1 Lesbians Are Elsewhere 2 Remedy and Poison 25 lrigaray and the Lesbian Body 3 Space, Skin, Spiral 43 The Aerial Letter and its Holographic Projection 4 Playing with the Closet 69 Jeux d'occultation and Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons 5 'The Heart of the Law" 97 Genre, Sexual Exchange and the Proper Name in Working Hot 6 Slash and Suture 137 The Border's Figuration of Colonialism, Phallocentrism, and Homophobia in Borderlands! La Frontera: The New Mestiza 7 Cindy Crawford Concludes 159 Notes 165 Works Cited 199 Index 211 Acknowledgements "Is THE BEGINNING OF A GIVEN WORK ITS REAL BEGINNING;' asks Edward Said, "or is there some other, secret point that more authentically starts the work off?''1 These days when poststructuralist interrogations of origin have problematized notions of priority and precedence, there seems little possibility that the "beginning" of a given work might be its "real" beginning. There is no secret that this work has its origins in my doctoral dissertation. Whatever beginnings might be claimed-or disclaimed-as marking my point of origin, one thing is certain: these words initially encountered by the reader are the final moments of a project made possible-and in some cases, bearable-by the following to whose criticism, generosity, and support I remain indebted: Marion Campbell, Kate Cummings, Teresa de Lauretis, Sneja Gunew, Linda Hardy, Trish Luker, Brian Opie, and Ken Ruthven. DURING THE COURSE OF WRITING LESBIAN UTOPICS, I visited my father in hospital. Lying in bed, he is in the mood to talk. "I am old now," he says, "but I have had a good life. I am so proud of my children. When anyone asks me I say: 'Pheroze is a lawyer. Maki is a doctor. Una is a lawyer. Fiona is in her first year at university':' He deliv- ers this short speech like a press statement. He has missed listing my name, which should be third in the sequence; he has forgotten to say why he is proud of me. "What about me, Dad? What do you say about me?" He seems surprised to see me still at the side of his bed. "Ah you, I say you are most beautiful;' he says. I persist. "But what do I do?" "I don't know;' he says. Then, holding up one hand to defend himself against any possible explanation, "I have it written down somewhere." He knits his fingers together across his chest, closes his eyes. He is tired now. No more talking.
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