The Queer Turn in Feminism: Identities, Sexualities, and the Theater of Gender

239 Pages·2014·1.947 MB·English

by  Anne Emmanuelle Berger

THE QUEER TURN IN FEMINISM
Fordham University Press New York 2014
Commonalities
Timothy C. Campbell, series editor
THE QUEER TURN
IN FEMINISM
Identities, Sexualities, and the Th eater of Gender
Anne Emmanuelle Berger
Translated by Catherine Porter
Copyright © 2014 Fordham University Press
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Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
CONTENTS
Ac know ledg ments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
1 Parabasis (Before the Act) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Queens and Queers: Th e Th eater
of Gender in “America” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3 Paradoxes of Visibility in / and
Contemporary Identity Politics . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4 Th e Ends of an Idiom, or Sexual
Diff erence in Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5 Roxana’s Legacy: Feminism
and Capitalism in the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

AC KNOW LEDG MENTS
I was able to begin writing this book thanks to the one- semester research
leave granted me by the Langue et Littérature Françaises section of the Con-
seil National des Universités in 2009; I would like to express my gratitude to
the members serving on the Conseil at that time. Th e Institut National des
Sciences Humaines et Sociales of the Centre National de la Recherche Scien-
tifi que allowed me to complete the work with the help of a grant in 2012;
many thanks to its leadership team and to the jurors of the 35th section. I am
grateful to the friends and colleagues at Paris 8 who supported me in this
project (special thanks to Bruno, Denis, and Eleni!) and also to my graduate
students in the Centre d’Études Féminines et d’Études de Genre at Paris 8;
this book, a product of our classes and our exchanges, is dedicated, in part,
to them. Heta Rundgren was of invaluable logistical help in juggling between
the French and American “versions” of the texts I consulted. Catherine
Porter, who translated the book into “American” En glish with patience,
rigor, and talent, made it better by pointing out glitches and unclear or awk-
ward phrasing. As the book had not yet appeared in French when she trans-
lated it, I was able to benefi t from her questions and suggestions to make the
necessary adjustments. To Cathy, all my gratitude! Let me take advantage of
this exercise, more “American” than French, to let my friends Anne Deneys-
Tunney, Hélène Merlin- Kajman, Catherine Nesci, and Isabelle Tournier
know that, unwittingly and each in her own way, they contributed signifi -
cantly to the impetus behind this book, as they did with earlier texts. Th e last
word belongs to HC, my mother, since it was she who suggested the title.
Finally, I owe to my most strangely intimate reader, Jim Siegel, the gift
of the “America” that propels my writing.

THE QUEER TURN IN FEMINISM