Queer Studies

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As queer studies one is interdisciplinary cultural studies research direction refers to the sexual identities critically examined. Based on the assumptions of queer theory , queer studies aim at the concrete application of queer theory formation in individual academic subjects, whereby the studies are adapted to the properties and structures of the respective discipline. The main areas of research include literary theory , political science , history , sociology , philosophy and psychology , but also other scientific disciplines.

The queer studies developed since the late 1980s in the United States from the Gay and Lesbian Studies (gay and lesbian studies), but widened their limited perspective on homosexuality in all types of sexuality and sexual desire of (z. B. bisexuality , transsexuality , BDSM and others). While initially mainly sexual orientations that deviate from heterosexuality were investigated, heterosexuality itself has also been an issue for some years.

In contrast to Gay and Lesbian Studies , which understand homosexuality and heterosexuality as fixed sexual identities and differentiate them from one another, queer studies criticize fixed identities in the area of ​​sexuality and gender. According to their theoretical foundation in queer theory, queer studies aim at the deconstruction of identities. It also asks how deconstruction becomes a queer research method in the humanities and social sciences . Queer studies analyze how identities are constructed through cultural and social processes in different areas of life and fields of science, what discursive and political effects these constructions trigger and how (especially in cultural phenomena such as literature ) such fixed identities can be undermined . The focus of research is often how the construction of bisexuality and heterosexuality supports the balance of power in a patriarchal social system.

In the Anglo-American region, Queer Studies was able to establish itself as an independent subject at many universities in the course of the 1990s and is currently one of the most productive fields of research with hundreds of monographs and essays, a number of important research centers and the specialist journal GLQ. A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies . In the German-speaking countries, however, queer studies are still receiving little attention; today there is no established academic institution that is solely dedicated to queer studies . Mostly queer research projects are organized together with gender studies in interdisciplinary centers. B. the center for transdisciplinary gender studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin , the interdisciplinary center for women and gender studies at the University of Greifswald and similar institutions at the universities in Bremen , Marburg and elsewhere.

literature

  • Andreas Kraß : Queer thinking. Against the order of sexuality (Queer Studies) . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 2003.
  • Sabine Hark : Queer Studies . In: Christina von Braun ; Inge Stephan (Ed.): Gender @ Knowledge. A handbook of gender theories. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2005. pp. 285–303.
  • Volker Woltersdorff: Queer Theory and Queer Politics . In: UTOPIE Kreativ , H. 156 (2003). Pp. 914-923. ( PDF )
  • Ján Demčišák: Queer as theory and reception aesthetic approach. In: J. Demčišák: Queer Reading from Brecht's early work. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8288-2995-4 online: PDF
  • Ján Demčišák: When desire reads ... In: Slovak magazine for German studies. ISSN  1338-0796 , Roč. 4, č. 1 (2012), pp. 90-96. online: PDF
  • Babka, Anna (2008): Across Queer. Queer Studies. Queer theory. Judith Butler's performance, in: Die Maske 3 (June 2008), 31–34.

swell

  1. ^ Anna Babka, Susanne Hochreiter: Queer Reading in the Philologies. Models and Applications . In: Anna Babka, Susanne Hochreiter (ed.): Queer Reading in the Philologies. Models and Applications . Vienna University Press, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-89971-387-9 .
  2. ↑ Antke Engel : Decisive interventions in undecidability. From queer identity criticism to disambiguation as a method . In: Sabine Hark (Ed.): Dis / Continuities: Feminist Theory . 2. revised VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, p. 285-304 .
  3. ^ Andreas Kraß: Queer Studies - an introduction. In the S. (Ed.): Queer thinking. Against the order of sexuality (Queer Studies). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 2003. p. 18 f.