“Un/Identified Remains: The Impolitics of Non-Identity”

Authors

  • Frances J Latchford York University

Keywords:

Identity, Subjectivity, Non/Identity Politics

Abstract

Abstract
For some time now, queer theory has uncritically assumed that identity politics should be rejected outright. Through a theoretical and biographical discussion of Michel Foucault’s resistance against the subject—his attempts at subject effacement—this paper argues that resistance is not realized through non-identity politics alone. It addresses two main questions: does the practice of non-identity sufficiently resist knowledge that (re)presents subjects and what are the social and political possibilities or risks of subject effacement? In response to these questions, it argues that, although the queer politics of non-identity is a mode of resistance, it is not sufficient as resistance in all contexts or fields of knowledge. It suggests that in many contexts, what Foucault refers to as the “infinite possibility of self” or the interruption of the subject cannot be realized through invisibility politics: in many contexts this possibility can only be experienced if and when the subject comes face to face with the presence of an other-subject.

Résumé
Depuis un certain temps, la théorie queer suppose de façon incontestée que les politiques d’identité devraient être rejetées d’emblée. Par une discussion théorique et biographique de la résistance de Michel Foucault à ce sujet – ses tentatives d’effacement du sujet – cet article fait valoir que la résistance n’est pas atteinte par des politiques de non-identité seulement. L’article aborde deux principales questions : est-ce que la pratique de la non-identité résiste suffisamment aux connaissances qui représentent les sujets, et quelles sont les possibilités sociales et politiques ou les risques de l’effacement du sujet? Pour répondre à ces questions, l’article fait valoir que bien que la politique queer de la non-identité est un mode de résistance, il ne s’agit pas d’une résistance suffisante dans tous les contextes ou les domaines de connaissance. L’article suggère que dans de nombreux contextes, ce que Foucault appelle la « possibilité infinie de l’être » ou l’interruption du sujet ne peut pas être atteinte par des politiques d’invisibilité; dans de nombreux contextes, le sujet peut uniquement faire l’expérience de cette possibilité s’il se retrouve face à face avec la présence d’un autre sujet.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Frances J Latchford, York University

Associate Professor

School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies

References

Ahmed, Sarah. 2010. The Promise of Happiness. London: Duke University Press.

Brady, Anita, and Tony Schirato. 2011. Understanding Judith Butler. London: Sage.

Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.

Butler, Judith and Biddy Martin. 1994. “Cross-Identifications.” Diacritics 24, no. 2/3 : 3.

Cohen, Jeffrey J., and Todd R. Ramlow. 2005/2006. “Pink Vectors of Deleuze: Queer Theory and Inhumanism.” Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge. 11/12. http://www.rhizomes.net/issue11/cohenramlow.html#a1.

Combahee River Collective. 1982. “A Black Feminist Statement.” In All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave, edited by Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, 13-22. New York: The Feminist Press.

Conley, Verena Andermatt. 2009. “Thirty-Six Thousand Forms of Love: The Queering of Deleuze and Guattari.” In Delueze and Queer Theory, edited by Chrysanthi Nigianni and Merl Storr, 24-36. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Davis, Collin. 2004. After Poststructuralism: Reading, Stories and Theory. London: Routledge.

Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefancic, eds. 2012. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction: Second Edition. New York: New York University Press.

Duggan, Lisa. 2003. The Twilight of Equality?: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack On Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press.

Eribon, Didier. 1991. Michel Foucault. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

_______. 2001. “Michel Foucault’s Histories of Sexuality.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 7, no. 1 : 31-86.

Ewald, Francois. n.d. “Editorial Foreward.” Gilles Deleuze. “Desire and Pleasure.” Translated by Melissa McMahon, 1997. http://www.artdes.monash.edu.au/globe/delfou.html.

Ford, Richard Thompson. 2007. “What’s Queer About Race?” South Atlantic Quarterly 103, no. 6 : 477-484.

Foucault, Michel. 1979. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books.

Foucault, Michel. 1980. The History Of Sexuality: Volume 1: An Introduction. New York: Vintage Books.

Foucault, Michel. 1984. The Foucault Reader. Edited by Paul Rabinow. New York: Pantheon Books.

Foucault, Michel. 1989. Foucault Live. New York: Semiotext(e).

Fuss, Diana. 1989. Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference. New York: Routledge.

Goldie, Terry. 2010. “Queering the Problem.” Reviews in Cultural Theory 1, no. 2. http://www.reviewsinculture.com/?r=50.

Halberstam, Jack. 2012. “On Pronouns.” Jack Halberstam: Gaga Feminism and Queer failure. http://www.jackhalberstam.com/on-pronouns/.

Halberstam, Judith. 2011. The Queer Art of Failure. London: Duke University Press.

Halperin, David M. 1995. Saint=Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography. New York: Oxford University Press.

Halperin, David M. and Valerie Traub. 2009. “Beyond Gay Pride.” In Gay Shame, edited by David M. Halperin and Valerie Traub, 3-40. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Harris, Angela P. 1999. “Building Theory, Building Community.” Social & Legal Studies 8, no. 3 : 313-325.

Hawley, John C. 2001. “Introduction.” In Post-Colonial Queer: Theoretical Intersections, edited by John C. Hawley, 1-18. New York: New York State University Press.

Hull, Gloria T., Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds. 1982. All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave. New York: The Feminist Press.

Jagose, Annamarie. 1996. “Queer Theory.” Australian Humanities Review 4. http://australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-Dec-1996/jagose.html.

Joecker, J.P., M. Oerd, and A. Sanzio. 1982. “Histoire et Homosexualite.” Masques 13 : 14-24.

Marable, Manning. 2000. “Beyond Racial Identity Politics: Towards a Liberation Theory for Multicultural Democracy.” In Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge: Second Edition, edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, 448-454. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Michel Foucault: Beyond Good and Evil. 1993. Directed by David Stewart. British Broadcasting Company. Television Documentary.

Miller, James. 1993. The Passion of Michel Foucault. New York: Doubleday.

Mills, Sara. 2003. Michel Foucault. London: Routledge.

Muñoz, José Esteban. 1999. Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. London: University of Minnesota Press.

_______. 2009. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: New York University Press.

Nietzsche, Friedrech. 1954. The Portable Nietzsche. Translated and edited by Walter Kaufman. New York: Penguin Books.

Nigianni, Chrysanthi, and Merl Storr. 2009. “Introduction.” In Delueze and Queer Theory, edited by Chrysanthi Nigianni and Merl Storr, 1-10.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Parisi, Luciana. 2009. “The Adventures of Sex.” In Delueze and Queer Theory, edited by Chrysanthi Nigianni and Merl Storr, 72-91. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Perez, Hiram. 2005. “You Can Have My Brown Body and Eat It, Too.” Social Text 84/85 : 171-191.

Puar, Jasbir K. 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. London: Duke University Press.

_______. 2011. “I Would Rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess: Intersectionality, Assemblage and Affective Politics.” European Institute for Progressive

Cultural Policies. http://eipcp.net/transversal/0811/puar/en.

Ruffalo, David V. 2009. Post-Queer Politics. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Ryan, Barbara. 2001. “Having It All: The Search for Identity and Community.” In Identity Politics in the Women’s Movement, edited by Barbara Ryan, 320-333. New York: New York University Press.

Schrag, Calvin O. 2004. Convergence Amidst Difference: Philosophical Conversations Across National Boundaries. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Shildrick, Margrit. 2004. “Queering Performativity: Disability After Deleuze.” Scan: Journal of Media Arts Culture 1, no. 3 : 1-6. http://www.scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal%20id=36.

_______. 2009. “Prosthetic Performativity: Deleuzean Connections and Queer Corporealities.” In Deleuze and Queer Theory, edited by Chrysanthi

Nigianni and Merl Storr, 115-133. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Smith, Andrea. 2011. “Queer Theory and Native Studies: The Heteronormativity of Settler Colonialism.” In Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics and Literature, edited by Qwo-Li Driskill, Chris Finley, Brian Joseph Gilley, and Scott Lauria Morgensen, 43-65. Arizona: University of Arizona Press.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. New York: Routledge.

Stryker, Susan. 2008. “Transgender History, Homonormativity, and Disciplinarity.” Radical History Review 100 : 145-157.

Veyne, Paul. 1993. “The Final Foucault and His Ethics.” Critical Inquiry 20, no. 1 : 1-9.

Warner, Michael. 1999. The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics and The Ethics of Queer

Downloads

Published

2015-04-10

Issue

Section

36.2- In/Visibility: Absences/Presence in Feminist Theorizing