Queer Literary Criticism objects of study that might be excluded in tra-

ditional scholarship and, sometimes, to bring

TAMSIN SPARGO
into question the assumptions of a given dis-
Liverpool John Moores University, UK
cipline about what it is proper to study. Queer
criticism thus tends to encompass texts from
Queer literary criticism is a term that can be popular culture and media and to consider
used to label a diversity of approaches to liter- literary texts within historical, social, and
ary and other texts that share a concern with discursive formations and relations. Queer
sexual orientations, identities, relations, and literary criticism uses the reading of texts
politics. The term can be used specifically to within, and in order to develop, arguments
describe work undertaken from a queer per- about sexuality or sexual politics and can
spective, definitively anti-normative, but is be seen as an interventionist approach to
also used more generally to encompass work academic scholarship, sharing with feminist,
by scholars whose concerns, or identifica- LGBTI, and other political stances, a refusal
tions are, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, of the illusion of disinterested critical enquiry.
or intersex (LGBTI). Although those writ- The term queer, in its positive sense,
ing queer literary criticism may identify as derived from the political activism of the
LGBTI or queer, the practice is best under- late 1980s when radical responses, by groups
stood as textual analysis and scholarship that such as ACT-UP and Queer Nation, to the
adopts a non-normative stance in practice profound threats and deeply held prejudices
rather than being a reflection of its author’s of the AIDs era, helped to build a non-
sexual identity. There is an overlap between conformist and assertively different LGBTI
those who would identify their literary schol- coalition. This explicit political commitment
arship as gay, or lesbian, or LGBTI, and queer, to refusing the model of gay assimilation into
but the definition used here focuses on the a heterosexist society was combined with
latter, rather than on the myriad approaches awareness of the power of intervention in
that preceded and coexist with it. Queer, language. A term that had been used to stig-
understood as either an adjective or as a verb, matize and disempower those who did not
denotes a troubling or challenging of normal, fit norms of behavior, appearance, or identi-
and normative, definitions of sexuality, gen- fication was reappropriated as a positive label
der, sexual identities, and practices, and it of refusal of those norms. Identity politics,
is this, rather than any identification with which had been the dominant model for the
currently understood identities, that defines assertion of gay rights in earlier decades, had
queer literary criticism. proved limited in its effectiveness, notably
It is rare to find a queer textual study that for those people whose identifications and
limits its scope to the literary as traditionally practices did not fit the oppositional identi-
understood. In common with other theoreti- ties available to them. Whereas gay or lesbian
cally informed textual practices that emerged identities might be accommodated within
from poststructuralist critical theory in the a heternormative structure, albeit in subor-
postmodern era, queer cultural analysis dinate or marginal positions, identification
tends to transgress disciplinary boundaries. It as queer resisted such assimilation. Queer
does so in order to prioritize and interrogate politics also embraced a greater diversity of
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, First Edition. Edited by Nancy A. Naples.
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss439
2 QU E E R L I T E R A RY C R I T ICI SM

people, including cross-dressers and those who might define their literary criticism as
identifying as intersex. Queer could be under- queer have in common a commitment to
stood as whatever is at odds with the normal, uncover, deconstruct, and contest a pervasive
or dominant understanding of proper gender but unstable heteronormativity rather than
and sexual identifications and practices, as a an agreed agenda or methodology. Some
relation of difference, a critical stance, rather critics might focus on revealing the extent
than an essential identity. of heteronomative constructions of gender
This political activism coincided with, and sexuality within the literature of a given
informed, and was informed by, philosoph- period, others might track changes to the lit-
ical, anthropological, and theoretical work erary representations of sexuality over time,
by figures such as Teresa de Lauretis, Gayle most explore the tensions within such repre-
Rubin, and Judith Butler, who developed sentations as they reflect, and contribute to,
and extended feminist deconstruction of wider structures of meaning. Queer literary
gender categorization. de Lauretis is credited criticism is usually historicist, insisting on the
with coining the phrase “queer theory” at a specificity of a text’s moment of production
conference in 1990 and in a special issue of or circulation. Its methods often employ
the journal differences: A Journal of Feminist deconstructivist textual analysis that explores
Cultural Studies (de Lauretis 1991). Rubin’s tensions and fissures in a literary work’s
anthropological work, notably her studies of production of meanings. Unlike some gay
lesbian sadomasochism and gay male leather or lesbian literary critical approaches, queer
subculture, challenged normative associ- literary criticism does not focus on recovering
ations and understandings of gender and or championing neglected or marginalized
sexuality. Butler’s exploration of the perfor- writing by LGBT-identified authors, as this
mativity of gender suggested that gendered would seem, like traditional identity politics,
and sexual identities are not essential but pro- to leave the binary oppositions structuring
duced through a form of scripted repetition. the field of knowledge in place. The inclusivity
These subversive, politically engaged explo- of the term queer has, however, encouraged
rations brought some of the force of the social the consideration of a wider range of texts
and cultural intervention of activists into the produced by and about other marginalized
academy and, although there had been many groups. In this respect, queer literary criti-
scholars and literary critics working on LGBT cism, like queer cultural theory, can be seen
issues, this “queering” moment marked a as addressing a revised field of study as well
new emphasis, and broader recognition of, as a distinctive approach.
the exploration of non-normative sexual- In this diverse range of studies, several
ities in critical practice. Other theoretical figures have emerged as particularly influen-
influences on queer literary practice were, tial, either in their writing or in their broader
and are Michel Foucault’s understanding practice, including teaching or activism. Key
of discursive structures and practices and figures include Lauren Berlant, Leo Bersani,
power, Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of Judith/Jack Halberstam, Michael Warner,
the binary structures of language as a social and David Halperin, who co-founded GLQ:
force, and the challenges to identity poli- A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, a key
tics that stemmed from feminist, and other, resource and context for gay critical stud-
psychoanalytic and philosophical traditions. ies that features the work of many critics
It is impossible to schematize queer literary cited here. Some of these are academics
criticism as it is not a formal school. Those who specialize in literary studies, but the
 QU E E R L I T E R A RY C R I T ICI SM 3

development of queer studies and of queer harnessing an author frequently misread as

critical approaches has been consistently conventionally romantic with an unexpected
multidisciplinary. Although this is an overtly desiring subject, Sedgwick addressed and
political academic practice, its practition- contested conventional assumptions and
ers have been notably successful in gaining demarcations. The essay, which explored les-
recognition and in establishing research and bian desire in Sense and Sensibility, challenged
pedagogic centers at universities, including conventionally accepted knowledge about
Duke University. sexual practices, identities, and relations both
The literary critic who is most strongly as depicted in the literary text and in the ways
associated with the development and cham- in which literary texts are read and catego-
pioning of queer criticism, mainly from her rized. In addition to addressing the formation
position at Duke, is Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. of sexual identities, Sedgwick explored sexual
Sedgwick’s Between Men: English Literature and erotic practices that transgressed gen-
and Male Homosocial Desire (1985), Episte- der and sexual-identity boundaries. This is
mology of the Closet (1990), and Tendencies another common feature of queer textual and
(1993), grew out of, and contributed to, the cultural analysis, connecting with Butler’s
queer activism of their period and epito- assertion of performativity, and contributing
mize key features of queer literary criticism to an overarching challenge to traditional
(Sedgwick 1985, 1990, 1993). Between Men associations of certain practices with homo-
analyzed the representation in, and par- sexual or heterosexual subjects. Although
ticipation of, literary texts in the complex Sedgwick, who died in 2009, did not com-
relations between men in British culture ment on her own sexuality, the fact that some
from 1750 to 1850. Here, canonical texts people commented on the contrast between
from Restoration drama to Tennyson’s poems her queer literary practice and her marriage
were re-viewed as part of an exploration of to a man has been taken as evidence of the
homosocial bonding that oppressed women pervasive social and cultural insistence on a
and depended on a refused homosexual iden- gay/straight binary opposition that her work
tity. In Epistemology of the Closet, Sedgwick contests.
discussed, through analysis of canonical texts The reach, and impact, of heteronorma-
of English and North American literature, tive figures has been explored in the work
the apparent imperative to identify a per- of another key exponent of queer literary
son as either heterosexual or homosexual criticism. Lee Edelman’s study No Future:
at the heart of twentieth-century forms of Queer Theory and the Death Drive (Edel-
knowledge. man 2004) explored the figure of the child
Sedgwick’s studies locate literary texts as a representation of innocence within a
within the interconnected structures and politics of reproduction that positions the
processes of knowledge production and queer as antisocial, narcissistic, and future-
circulation, and identity formation and power negating. Edelman offered readings of novels
relations of specific historical moments. She and films that re-imagined them without
also, as her collection of essays Tendencies their pivotal child figures in addition to
demonstrates, wrote in a provocative, playful offering a critique of normalizing acts such
style that was as much part of her queer as gay marriage and parenting. This fusion
project as her argument. As the title of one of of literary criticism, psychoanalysis, social
her best-known essays, “Jane Austen and the critique, and polemic epitomized queer cul-
Masturbating Girl,” demonstrates through tural praxis. Edelman’s work connects with
4 QU E E R L I T E R A RY C R I T ICI SM

an emphasis in much queer literary criti- figures include José Esteban Muñoz and
cism on identifying, and queering, negative Gloria Anzaldúa.
associations in literature between homo- Although many of the earliest academic
sexuality and death, brought into focus by proponents of queer literary criticism were
homophobic representations during the AIDs based in North American universities, it is
crisis. best viewed as a trans-national phenomenon
Some queer cultural criticism has focused and explorations of culturally different
on the literary representation of sexual identifications and practices have served to
practices, and their associated subcultures, extend and modify its scope. In the United
such as sado-masochism, as foregrounding Kingdom, the term “sexual dissidence,” taken
and perfomatively subverting conventional from Rubin and championed at the University
power relations; work in this area includes of Sussex, is used in addition to, or instead of,
the study of queer and LGTBI fiction writers queer.
such as Pat Califia, and the intersections of Criticisms of queer literary criticism and
pornographic, polemical, and performance theory have been voiced from very dif-
texts. Work on subjects, and writers, who ferent positions. In common with other
defy conventional gender and sexual classi- forms of scholarship that share its trans-
fications includes subcultural groups, such disciplinary, overtly political approach, it
as South American travesti, and individ- has been accused by supporters of tradi-
ual autobiographical writers who, like Kate tional literary criticism of making literary
Bornstein, both write and enact performative texts serve its ends rather than elucidating
contestation of heteronormativity. A more them. Some Marxist critics argue that, like
overtly playful, but still politically charged, poststructuralist and postmodern theory,
strand of queer critique, typified by the work it has been successful in gaining a strong
of Moe Meyer, has focused on the ways in foothold in the university system because
which drag, hyperbolic performance, and its focus on the discursive limits its political
camp contest heteronormativity through par- challenge. Some LGTBI-identified critics of
ody. In such work, the analysis of dramatic queer theory, and criticism, argue that its
or represented performance, in literary or rejection of the idea of stable identities is
popular culture, is approached as part of an easier to accept from a position of (academic)
exploration of the performativity of gendered privilege and that its theoretical approach
and sexual identities. may exclude some people. Although there are
Although some critics have suggested an increasing number of literary critics who
that it still privileges the white, middle-class would identify their work as queer rather
male, there are multiple strands to queer than LGTB or I, the ubiquity of the term, and
literary and cultural criticism that explore its mainstream respectability, have led some
the intersections and tensions between writers who originally used the term, includ-
sexual, gendered, and racial subject positions. ing de Lauretis, to stop using it to identify
African American queer literary criticism
their work. New directions in the twenty-first
ranges from re-evaluations of canonical
century include links with postsecular theory,
texts such as those of James Baldwin, to
including the work of Marcella Althaus-Reid,
explorations of the racial loading of sexual
and with queer ethics and phenomenology.
metaphor; key figures include Mae G. Hen-
derson and E. Patrick Johnson. There is also SEE ALSO: Heteronormativity and
a strong Latina/Latino tradition; influential Homonormativity; Queer Theory
 QU E E R L I T E R A RY C R I T ICI SM 5

REFERENCES Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1987. Borderlands/La Fron-

de Lauretis, Teresa, ed. 1991. “Queer Theory: tera: the New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt
Lesbian and Gay Sexualities.” differences: A Lute Books.
Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 3(2): special Bersani, Leo. 2009. Is the Rectum a Grave? And
issue. Other Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago
Edelman, Lee. 2004. No Future: Queer Theory and Press.
the Death Drive. Durham, NC: Duke University Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and
Press. the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 1985. Between Men: GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies.
English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. Halberstam, Judith. 1998. Female Masculinity.
New York: Columbia University Press. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 1990. Epistemology of Halperin, David. 1995. Saint Foucault: Towards a
the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Gay Hagiography. New York: Oxford University
Press. Press.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 1993. Tendencies. Meyer, Moe. 2005. The Politics and Poetics of Camp.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press. London: Routledge.
Muñoz, José Esteban. 1999. Disidentifications:
Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics.
FURTHER READING Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Althaus-Reid, Marcella. 2003. The Queer God. Rubin, Gayle. 2012. Deviations: a Gayle Rubin
London: Routledge. Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.