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Headings: Gender Studies and Queer Theory (1970s-present)
Gender Studies and Queer Theory (1970s-present)
Gender (s), Power, and Marginalization
In-Betweens
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Content: Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use. Gender Studies and Queer Theory (1970s-present)
Summary: This resource will help you begin the process of understanding literary theory and schools of criticism and how they are used in the academy. Gender (s), Power, and Marginalization
Gender studies and queer theory explore issues of sexuality, power, and marginalized populations (woman as other) in literature and culture. Much of the work in gender studies and queer theory, while influenced by feminist criticism, emerges from post-structural interest in fragmented, de-centered knowledge building (Nietzsche, Derrida, Foucault), language (the breakdown of sign-signifier), and psychoanalysis (Lacan). A primary concern in gender studies and queer theory is the manner in which gender and sexuality is discussed: " Effective as this work [feminism] was in changing what teachers taught and what the students read, there was a sense on the part of some feminist critics that...it was still the old game that was being played, when what it needed was a new game entirely. The argument posed was that in order to counter patriarchy, it was necessary not merely to think about new texts, but to think about them in radically new ways" (Richter 1432). Therefore, a critic working in gender studies and queer theory might even be uncomfortable with the binary established by many feminist scholars between masculine and feminine: " Cixous (following Derrida in Of Grammatology) sets up a series of binary oppositions (active/passive, sun/moon...father/mother, logos/pathos).