Call for Papers
SCS Queer Caucus
Society for Cinema Studies Conference
May 24-27, 2001, Washington, D.C.
"Re-Conditioning the 'Queer': Moving-Image Theory and Culture in the Age of
Global Transnationalism"
In contemporary academic discourse, "queer" has come to signify a
particularly postmodern mode of socio-cultural subversion. In Eve
Sedgwick's classic description, "queer" designates an "open mesh of
possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and
excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone's gender, of
anyone's sexuality aren't made (or can't be made) to signify monolithically:
the experimental linguistic, epistemological, representational, political
attaching to the very many of us who may at times be moved to describe
ourselves as (among other possibilities) pushy femmes, radical faeries,
fantasists, drags, clones, leatherfolk, ladies in tuxedos, feminist women or
feminist men, masturbators, bulldaggers, divas, Snap!queens, butch bottoms,
storytellers, transsexuals, aunties, wanna-bes, lesbian-identified men or
lesbians who sleep with men, or people able to relish, learn from, or
identify with such (Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick, "Queer and Now" in TENDENCIES, 8).
This understanding of "queer" as sex-gender extremity, oversufficiency, and
differential superfluity has indeed disseminated quickly and energetically
across the rapidly intensifying ranges of international moving-image
culture. Over the past decade, film, television, and the Internet have
supplied "queers" with tools to re-envision sex-gender subjectivity and
social relations on an unprecedented scale, with "queer" sensibilities and
critical projects emerging globally.
At the same time, however, the political, economic, and ideological contexts
and determinants of "queer" moving-image culture have not generally been
acknowledged, much less challenged. That the intensification of
international moving-image culture, especially in the Third World and former
Soviet bloc, is largely a hegemonic offensive launched in the interests of
primarily U.S.-based transnational corporations (TNCs) remains a fact worthy
of sustained interrogation by and within "queer theoretical" circles. Is it
possible that "queer theorists" and "queer" moving-image artists exist who
oppose this offensive? Might they voice their outrage and come to stand
firmly, in solidarity, against the TNC-interested dominance of international
media, which would co-opt the "queer" as paradigm of global deregulation and
reposition "queerness" as a stereotypical vehicle for "creative" adventure
and celebration of "success"?
In view of this possibility, the Queer Caucus of the Society for Cinema
Studies is calling for papers that address the following questions and issues:
1) Does the internationalization of the "queer" through global moving-image
culture provide us with reason to celebrate? Which "queer theoretical" and
"queer" cultural practices "succeed" on the global market, and which are
designated margins of risk periodically deemed expendible because
"unmarketable"? Are the gay.coms and planetout.coms marks of "queer"
liberation or harbingers of ever-extensive super-exploitation? How might
"queer" signify "creativity" and "success" without also reifying the
relations of transnational capitalism?
2) What has been the function of glbt and glbt-friendly international film
festivals in the dissemination of the "queer"? How do these festival
programs (e.g., romantic comedy headliners, corporate sponsorships, "indie"
film promotion, the turn to "spirituality") work to strengthen or undermine
the project of "queer" liberation?
3) Have "queer theory" and "postfeminism" developed a synergy? What might
be the relationship between "queer" deregulation of sex-gender subjectivity
and "postfeminist" abandonment of progressive legislation including
Affirmation Action/Equal Opportunity? Have critiques of this phenomenon
been sufficient to stave off "queer" reaffirmations of laissez-faire?
4) How might "queer" racism and anti-feminism be related to this phenomenon?
In what ways do "queer" racism and anti-feminism operate under the guise of
a celebratory transnational "queer culture"? How does the marketablity of
"global queer" and its purported creative difference satisfy the
assimilationist and ideological dreams of liberal humanism and (post)western
imperialism?
E-mail 250-300-word proposals for 20-min. papers to:
Terri Ginsberg, Co-chair <t.ginsberg.1@alumni.nyu.edu>
AND
David Gerstner, Co-chair <gerstner@hotmail.com>
Deadline: August 31, 2000
Visit the SCS Queer Caucus web site at:
http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/dagerstner/SCSQueerCaucus.html
(Participants must be members of SCS.)
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