Towards minoritarian genderqueer politics: potentials of Deleuzoguattarian molecular genderqueer subjectivities and bodies.
Date
2011-06-02
Authors
Laing, Kelsie (Daley)
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Abstract
There is great potential for the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in the realm of
queer theory, and specifically discussions of gender variance. Their critique of
psychiatry, capitalism and the unitary subject in Anti-Oedipus (1983) fits well within the
current discussions surrounding transgender and genderqueer experiences including
Gender Identity Disorder classifications, the commodification of queer culture, and the
challenges put forth to our the "modern subject" by the fluidity of genderqueer. Yet
strangely, there has not yet been an explicit, in-depth Deleuzoguattarian ontological
reading of genderqueer. This thesis helps to foster such discussions by focusing on
Deleuzoguattarian understandings of subjectivity, bodies and politics and how they relate
to both gender and genderqueer. Through a method of involution, gender is transformed
into molecular gender, into a productive, immanently relational, multiplicitous gender
that has substantial implications for gender(queer) politics and activism.
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Keywords
Deleuze, Gilles, 1925-1995, Guattari, Félix, 1930-1992, gender identity, human body