The Material Queer: A Lesbigay Cultural Studies Reader (Queer Critique) [Paperback]

Donald Morton (Author), EDITOR * (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813319277 | ISBN-13: 978-0813319278 | Publication Date: June 27, 1996

This pathbreaking anthology turns first to the historical tradition in homosexual theory, from Plato to Freud, and then explores the (post)modern canon: Derrida, Lacan, Foucault, Barthes, Irigaray, and Butler. It then situates classic and (post)modern discourses in a dialectical relation to historical materialist theories that go beyond the ethics of desire to relate sexuality to global social struggles. Offering such surprising intellectual conjunctures as those between Heraclitus, Hegel, and Engels; Freud and Volosinov; Lacan and Kollontai; Derrida and Dennis Altman; queer theorists and the Socialist Worker Collective, the volume disrupts the status quo in sexuality studies. Rather than reinforcing (post)structuralist orthodoxies about the difference of/in sexualities, The Material Queer provides sustained materialist interventions in today’s dominant theories, which, while calling for social progress, actually obscure the most effective line of resistance against sexual and other forms of oppression and exploitation.That effective line is a historical materialist analysis aimed at establishing a posthomophobic society in which sexuality is not deployed to justify differences of class that are actually produced in the social relations of production.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donald Morton is professor of English at Syracuse University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (June 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813319277
• ISBN-13: 978-0813319278
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,163,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of queer materialism, November 26, 2001

By 

Christopher W. Chase "Christopher W. Chase" (East Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Material Queer: A Lesbigay Cultural Studies Reader (Queer Critique) (Paperback)

This book is controversial, to say the least. Perusing the table of contents reveals that many of the essays Morton wanted to include were denied permission to reprint. Be that as it may, this volume is nonetheless useful. It documents a growing movement within queer studies, that of Queer Materialism.

Queer Materialism, while not always Marxist, nonetheless takes its cue from dialectical materialism. Gender and sexuality are regarded here as dependent on the means of production. Here the unstable and shifting ground of queer sexual identity is posited as a function of late capitalism, a situtation of quickly flowing and networking capital, which seeks profit outside of "traditional" gender and sexual boundaries. Thus we see the growing economic importance of gay consumers and workers in capitalism, outpacing and destroying the cold-war hegemony of conservative ethical and religious morals.

At the same time, this points to the stormy reception queer theory has recieved in lesbigay studies. Some have argued that this deconstruction of sexual orientation and gender serves the political interests of the right-wing, preserving male and heterosexist hegemony while undermining women's voices and progressive politics. Queer theory, like bisexuals, can pose a "crisis of meaning" for many who wish to carve out a safe and protective space for lesbigays.

As LesBiGay studies have often relied on sexual orientation/sexual identity as a fundamental category, queer theory attempts to destablize this "bedrock," revealing the power structures and discursive limits within. Because of its emphasis on captalism (from a Marxist perspective to be sure) and its deconstrucitve tactics, queer theory is thus attacked from the left and the right.

Essayists in this work decry the presence of essentialism and idealism in Lesbigay culture, as well as their child, "identity politics". What remains unclear, and unanswered, in my opinion, is the fate of queer individuals after the utopian moment of Marxist revolution.

If queer individuals are a product of capitalism---then does that mean that the end of capitalism would bring stable and firm gender and sexual identities? What about intersexed individuals and transsexual/transgendered people? Will they somehow not exist? What would gender roles be like in a post-capitalist world? Would "stable" identiites be a good thing? What or whose interests would that serve?

Well, these are of course speculative questions, but ones that queer materialism must answer to eventually. Until then, this reader is a good place to start reading and getting to know this subset of queer studies.