Hegemony and Heteronormativity: Revisiting ’’the Political’’ in Queer Politics

This book reflects on ’the political’ in queer theory and politics by revisiting two of its key categories: hegemony and heteronormativity. It explores the specific insights offered by these categories and the ways in which they augment the analysis of power and domination from a queer perspective, whilst also examining the possibilities for political analysis and strategy-building provided by theories of hegemony and heteronormativity. Moreover, in addressing these issues the book strives to rethink the understanding of the term ＂queer＂, so as to avoid narrowing queer politics to a critique of normative heterosexuality and the rigid gender binary. By looking at the interplay between hegemony and heteronormativity, this ground-breaking volume presents new possibilities of reconceptualizing ’the political’ from a queer perspective. Investigating the effects of queer politics not only on subjectivities and intimate personal relations, but also on institutions, socio-cultural processes and global politics, this book will be of interest to those working in the fields of critical theory, gender and sexuality, queer theory, postcolonial studies, and feminist political theory.

MarÃ-a do Mar Castro Varela is Professor for Gender and Queer Studies at the Alice Salomon University Berlin, Germany Nikita Dhawan is Junior Professor of Gender and Postcolonial Studies at Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany Antke Engel is Director of the Institute for Queer Theory, Berlin, and research fellow at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin, Germany