Description
Book SynopsisKadji Amin challenges the idealization of Jean Genet as a paradigmatic figure within queer studies to illuminate the methodological dilemmas at the heart of queer theory, bringing the genealogy of Genet's imaginaries of attachment to bear on pressing issues within contemporary queer politics and scholarship, including prison abolition, homonationalism, and pinkwashing.
Trade Review"Amin's commitment to re-evaluating the unsettling practices of Genet's life represents a serious attempt to contend with the colonial, racist, and hierarchical legacies present in queer social forms. . . .
Disturbing Attachments, by investigating the traction queer theory can have in contending with the compromises and failures hidden within its own field, demonstrates the potential for critical self-inquiry." -- Rajat D. Singh * Gay & Lesbian Review *
"There is no doubt that
Disturbing Attachments is, first and foremost, a work of and about queer studies, a fearless and scholarly probing of its disciplinary norms, its discursive limits, and its most embarrassing relations. It should be read by all those who care about the discipline’s future . . . and, most importantly, by those who care about its past." -- Andrew Counter * French Studies *
"Amin’s book offers a dizzying number of theoretical interventions, in an elegant style that makes up for the uncompromising density of the text. With refreshing currency,
Disturbing Attachments displaces queer studies outside its presentist US context." -- Mehammed Amadeus Mack * Journal of Middle East Women's Studies *
"
Disturbing Attachments is a formidable read. It is theoretically mobile, stylistically gratifying, and conceptually probing." -- Helmut Puff * American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Attachment Genealogies of Pederastic Modernity 19
2. Light of a Dead Star: The Nostalgic Modernity of Prison Pederasty 45
3. Racial Fetishism, Gay Liberation, and the Temporalities of the Erotic 76
4. Pederastic Kinship 109
5. Enemies of the State: Terrorism, Violence, and the Affective Politics of Transnational Coalition 141
Epilogue. Haunted by the 1990s: Queer Theory's Affective Histories 176
Notes 191
Bibliography 235
Index 249
