Academic literature on the topic 'Queer Marxism'

The complex relationship between Queer and Marxism, and the related concepts of gender and class, opression and exploatation, is the question that gets raised time and again within progressive theories and movements. Which one has the priority? Or, is the priority issue totally wrong, and one needs to answer instead how these concepts mutually condition each other? The answers to these questions also depend on how we conceive the multiple histories of Queer Marxism. Therefore, this essay is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the history of Queer Marxism in the West. The corpus of works upon which this segment is based involves so far dominant approaches to this history and works by authors like Mario Mieli and Guy Hocquenghem from the second half of the 20th century, as well as the writings by one of the founders of Queer Marxism, Peter Drucker, from the last decade. The second part focuses on the present-day decolonial perspectives on Queer Marxist history in the making, and in particular, previous studies of homosexual history from the Yugoslav socialist period. In the end, we provide a brief sketch of the field of post-Yugoslav Queer Marxism in the making.

This article argues that the development of queer theory as a field has been critically shaped by a desire to dissociate the studies of gender and sexuality from material concerns. Though what is meant by “the material” varies wildly from context to context, queer critiques of materialism have produced an entrenched impression of the incommensurability between queer theory and Marxism. Tracing the varied ways in which the notion of the material has been deployed by queer critics to pose questions about the economic reductionism of Marxism, empiricism, and corporeality, this article demonstrates that the material has functioned as a kind of spectral presence in queer theorizing, an enabling form of haunting that keeps critics worrying productively about the best way to stay true to the radically anticipatory orientation of early queer theory. The specter of the material provides the epistemological foundation for canonical texts in queer theory that do not appear to be concerned with Marxism, such as those of Butler and Sedgwick; it also serves as the conceptual fulcrum for a number of “queer Marxist” projects that attempt to synthesize these two traditions. This article concludes by suggesting that, instead of viewing queer theory and Marxism as intellectually incompatible or historically successive projects, we might productively reconceptualize them as subjectless critiques commonly concerned with the problem of social structuration.

From an apparent impasse and crisis in the 1970s and 1980s – politically and intellectually – Marxism has recovered to offer critical insights into contemporary changes and developments in late capitalist societies. Sexuality has been one area where Marxist critiques of commodification and consumption, reification, cultural production and its hegemonic effects and the structures of feeling and meaning-making that compose contemporary subjectivities have been of significant value in decoding legal, political and cultural changes in the regulation, prohibition and propagation of forms of sex and sexuality. This discussion will draw from some of the most important contributions to Marxist critiques of sexuality, contemporary and historical, to outline the contours of a critique of contemporary sexuality in society, notably Peter Drucker, Holly Lewis, Rosemary Hennessy, David Evans, and Keith Floyd. The Marxist critique of contemporary sexual politics and rights claims both recognises the importance of these struggles and provides a materialist critique that demonstrates both the contemporary power of Marxist analysis and a critical engagement with queer and constructionist “orthodoxies”. Marxism has become a central and important ground for exploring the vagaries of sexuality under capitalism in all its objectifying, commodifying, alienating and exploitative forms.

Stemming from a recent surge in articles related to Korean masculinities, and based in afeminist and queer Marxist theoretical framework, this paper asks how gender, with a specificfocus on what is referred to as soft masculinity, is constructed through K-pop performances, aswell as what power structures are in play. By reading studies on pan-Asian masculinities andgender performativity - taking into account such factors as talnori and kkonminam, andinvestigating conceptual terms flower boy, aegyo, and girl crush - it forms a baseline for aqualitative research project. By conducting qualitative interviews with Swedish K-pop fans andperforming semiotic analysis of K-pop music videos, the thesis finds that although K-popmasculinities are perceived as feminine to a foreign audience, they are still heavily rooted in aheteronormative framework. Furthermore, in investigating the production of genderperformativity in K-pop, it finds that neoliberal commercialism holds an assertive grip overthese productions and are thus able to dictate ‘conceptualizations’ of gender and projectidentities that are specifically tailored to attract certain audiences. Lastly, the study shows thatthese practices are sold under an umbrella of ‘loyalty’ in which fans are incentivized toconsume in order to show support for their idols – in which the concept of desire plays asignificant role.

A presente tese analisa a relação do movimento LGBT (Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais) com o Governo Federal mediada pela estrutura de participação política centrada no Conselho Nacional de Combate à Discriminação de LGBTs (CNCD/LGBT) e nas Conferências Nacionais LGBT. A partir da abordagem teórica marxista o trabalho problematiza questões referentes aos estudos de gênero e sexualidade próprios do pósestruturalismo e da teoria queer. Articulando alguns conceitos centrais destas correntes teóricas no interior da problemática da totalidade, própria ao marxismo, e ao conceito de Estado Integral ou Ampliado de Antônio Gramsci, o movimento LGBT é considerado como processo de constituição de sujeito “para si”. No curso de seu desenvolvimento este sujeito passa a atuar na arena da sociedade política sob a lógica da parceria e colaboração com o Estado. O objetivo do estudo é avaliar se a relação entre movimento e governo, por meio da participação em espaços institucionais que atuam como aparelhos hegemônicos, é caracterizada pelo consenso ativo de quadros e lideranças LGBTs junto ao bloco que governou o país entre 2003 e 2016, constituindo-se em relação de hegemonia. A metodologia utilizada abarcou análise quali-quantitativa, tomando como base publicações da ABGLT, em particular as que trabalham com o conceito de Advocacy, entrevistas em profundidade com atores chave que ocupam posições centrais na estrutura participativa em questão e a realização de censo com participantes do V Congresso Nacional da ABGLT, constituindo banco de dados para análise estatística Os resultados do estudo indicam que o processo de institucionalização do movimento, aprofundado pela atuação nos espaços participativos, incide na sua relação com o governo de modo a afastar do campo de ação do grupo subalterno a lógica do conflito. Os espaços de participação atuam como meio de organização, mobilização e definição de pautas, canalizando para si e neutralizando insatisfações e críticas da população LGBT frente às ações do poder público. O trânsito de quadros entre espaços da sociedade civil e da sociedade política marca o transformismo de lideranças e intelectuais do movimento. Sob tais condições o governo exerceu sua hegemonia política sobre o movimento LGBT por meio dos espaços participativos criado no Estado.
This dissertation analyzes the connection between the LGBT movement (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders) and the Federal Government mediated by the structure of political participation focused on the National Council Against the Discrimination of LGBTs and on the LGBT National Conferences. Therefore, this text, based on the Marxist theoretical approach, analyzes issues concerning gender and sexuality studies typical of poststructuralism and of the queer theory. By articulating some essential concepts of these theoretical approaches within the issue of totality, typical of Marxism and of Antônio Gramsci’s Integral or Extended State matters, the LGBT movement is considered a process of subject formation “for itself”. Throughout the development of this subject, he or she starts to act in our society’s political arena under the logic of partnership and cooperation along with the State. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate if this connection between the LGBT movement and the government, via the participation of the movement in institutional environments that act like hegemonic sets, is, in fact, characterized by the active consensus of LGBT leaderships that worked along with the group who ruled the country between 2003 and 2016, forming itself in a relationship of hegemony. The methodology adopted used qualiquantitative analysis, taking as its base the publications of ABGLT, specially the ones that deal with the concept of Advocacy, interviews with artists who are in important positions regarding the participative structure analyzed in this dissertation, as well as the achievement of census with participants of the V ABGLT National Congress, which constituted a data bank for statistical analysis The results of this study show that the process of the institutionalization of the movement, stronger due to its acting in participative environments, incise in its relationship to the government, thus alienating the logic of conflict from the group's acting field. These participative environments act like a means of organization, mobilization and definition of agendas, canalizing to themselves as well as neutralizing insatisfaction or criticism that might come from the LGBT population regarding the actions before the State. The transition between civil and political society environments mark the transformation of the movement's leaderships as well as its intellectuals. Under these conditions, the government carried out its political hegemony over the LGBT movement via the participative environments created within the State.

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Esta disserta??o tem como objeto de pesquisa o embate te?rico-metodol?gico que gira em torno da discuss?o sobre g?nero, especificamente, no que tange as perspectivas de an?lise marxista e p?s-moderna. Considerando-se que essas perspectivas apresentam categorias te?ricas divergentes e que v?o de encontro na forma de analisar a realidade social e as rela??es nela presentes, apontando, assim, diferentes proposi??es e direcionamentos. Nesse sentido, este trabalho tem como objetivo geral: analisar o debate de g?nero no campo do marxismo e da p?s-modernidade; e como objetivos espec?ficos: apreender as principais categorias de an?lise do marxismo e da p?s-modernidade; realizar um levantamento das produ??es dos anais do evento Fazendo G?nero; identificar as principais tend?ncias e perspectivas te?ricas que vem se destacando nesse evento. Diante dessa configura??o, buscamos, por meio desta pesquisa, problematizar essas quest?es com base nas publica??es de comunica??o oral realizadas no Semin?rio Internacional Fazendo G?nero. A partir de uma abordagem qualitativa, buscamos construir este trabalho realizando a coleta de dados e a pesquisa bibliogr?fica acerca do tema. Nesse processo, optamos por fazer um recorte para chegar a amostra final da nossa pesquisa, levando em considera??o a amplitude do evento e a grande quantidade de artigos nele publicados, desse modo, foram coletados os dados dos Anais do Semin?rio Internacional Fazendo G?nero 7 ao 10, pois estes eram os que se encontravam dispon?veis no site do evento. Para elabora??o da an?lise foram escolhidos 80 artigos, dos quais tentamos explorar as reflex?es propostas pelos autores, bem como as principais categorias de an?lise, m?todo utilizado, ?rea tem?tica, referencial bibliogr?fico e de que forma as quest?es de g?nero s?o abordadas diante desses elementos. Podemos observar, nesse curto espa?o de an?lise, que h? uma tend?ncia crescente na produ??o sobre g?nero no campo da perspectiva p?s-moderna, sua predomin?ncia n?o se explica apenas por fatores hist?ricos, uma vez que, o g?nero nasceu dessa fonte, como tamb?m em virtude das diferentes formas com que esta categoria ? apreendida. Isso porque, no marxismo o g?nero ? visto enquanto fen?meno que faz parte das express?es da quest?o social e que, dessa forma, dialoga com a totalidade da vida social; enquanto na p?s-modernidade ? visto como um elemento da subjetividade, e por isso, suas an?lises se d?o predominantemente no campo do imagin?rio, do simb?lico e do cultural. Percebemos, tamb?m, que h? muito pontos que necessitam ser problematizados nas abordagens sobre g?nero, visto que, grande parte dos artigos, apresentaram uma an?lise superficial da conjuntura em que est?o inseridas as rela??es sociais, principalmente no que diz respeito ao posicionamento pol?tico-ideol?gico na constru??o e transforma??o social, como tamb?m na cr?tica ? ordem vigente. A aus?ncia desses elementos configura um cen?rio de imediatismo e de volatilidade no trato de quest?es que merecem uma reflex?o mais consistente, tendo em vista a conjuntura s?cio-pol?tica que vivenciamos hoje.
This dissertation has as object of research the theoretical-methodological clash that revolves around the discussion about gender, specifically, regarding the perspectives of Marxist and postmodern analysis. Considering that these perspectives present divergent theoretical categories and that they encounter in the form of analyzing the social reality and the relations in them present, pointing, therefore, different propositions and directions. In this sense, this work has as general objective: to analyze the gender debate in the field of Marxism and postmodernity; And as specific objectives: to apprehend the main categories of analysis of Marxism and postmodernity; Perform a survey of the annals of the Making of Gender event; Identify the main trends and theoretical perspectives that have been highlighted in this event. Given this configuration, we seek, through this research, to problematize these issues based on the oral communication publications held at the International Seminar on Gender Making. From a qualitative approach, we seek to build this work by performing data collection and bibliographic research on the subject. In this process, we chose to make a cut to arrive at the final sample of our research, taking into account the amplitude of the event and the large number of articles published in it, thus, data were collected from the Annals of the International Seminar Making Gender 7 to 10, since these were the ones that were available in the site of the event. For the elaboration of the analysis, we selected 80 articles, from which we tried to explore the reflections proposed by the authors, as well as the main categories of analysis, method used, thematic area, bibliographic reference and how gender issues are approached before these elements. We can observe, in this short space of analysis, that there is an increasing tendency in production on gender in the field of the postmodern perspective, its predominance is not only explained by historical factors, since the genre was born from this source, but also by virtue Of the different ways in which this category is seized. This is because, in Marxism, gender is seen as a phenomenon that forms part of the expressions of the social question and, in this way, dialogues with the totality of social life; While in postmodernity it is seen as an element of subjectivity, and therefore, its analyzes take place predominantly in the field of imaginary, symbolic and cultural. We also noticed that there are many points that need to be problematized in the approaches on gender, since a large part of the articles presented a superficial analysis of the conjuncture in which social relations are inserted, mainly with regard to the political-ideological position in the Construction and social transformation, as well as in the critique of the current order. The absence of these elements constitutes a scenario of immediacy and volatility in dealing with issues that deserve a more consistent reflection, given the socio-political context we are experiencing today.

In this dissertation, I explore contemporary transformations of both sexual politics and queer theory from a politico-philosophical perspective. On the one hand, I analyze how progressive sexual politics have been recently articulated to the politico-economic project of neoliberalism and to new forms of racism, nationalism, and imperialism. Thus, the dissertation is situated within contemporary queer debates on “homonormativity” (Duggan 2003), “homonationalism” (Puar 2007), and “sexual imperialism” (Massad 2007). On the other hand, I focus on how queer theory has responded to these political transformations. I read both processes—the transformations of contemporary sexual politics and the transformations of the queer theoretical field—through the theory of hegemony that Stuart Hall appropriated from Antonio Gramsci and reactivated in Britain in the 1980s, in the context of Thatcherism (see Hall 1986; 1988). The central goal of the dissertation is to explore the ways in which the conceptual apparatus developed by Hall in that context can help us better understand today, thirty years later, both the transformations of progressive sexual politics and the transformations of the queer theoretical field. In the first chapter, I focus on Hall’s work. First, I discuss Hall’s politico-philosophical interventions: his reading of Gramsci, his theory of politics and ideology, his analyses of Thatcherism, and his critical dialogues with key contemporary interlocutors, especially Louis Althusser and Ernesto Laclau. Second, I zoom in on some key political moments of the construction of Thatcherite hegemony. Hence, in the next two chapters, I turn to contemporary queer debates. In the second chapter, I explore Lisa Duggan’s (2003) work on homonormativity: a gay politics ideologically aligned with the politico-economic project of neoliberalism. While the first part of this chapter is devoted to Duggan’s analysis, the rest of it reconstructs the transformations of queer theory in the face of this shift of the politico-ideological terrain. Here, I situate both a “Marxist renaissance” in queer theory (see Floyd 2009) and the emergence of queer of color critique (see Ferguson 2004). I read the relation between homonormativity and these two emerging theoretical formations through Hall’s theory of hegemony. Finally, in the third chapter, I turn to Jasbir K. Puar’s (2007) critique of homonationalism and Joseph A. Massad’s (2007) critique of sexual imperialism. First of all, I reconstruct their respective analyses as instances of queer diasporic critique (see Gopinath 2005). Hence, I pose a question of theoretical practice: while criticizing U.S. and European imperialism, to what extent are these diasporic critiques located in the global North able to articulate the concrete struggles around sexual politics emerging in the South? Each chapter ends with a political vignette that supplements the theoretical debates. In the conclusion, I draw on my analyses and on such vignettes in order to profile what I term, following Hall once again, a “queer Marxism without guarantees.”