The Queer Art of Failure

English language

Published Aug. 13, 2011

ISBN:
978-0-8223-5045-3
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(1 review)

"The Queer Art of Failure is about finding alternatives—to conventional understandings of success in a heteronormative, capitalist society; to academic disciplines that confirm what is already known according to approved methods of knowing; and to cultural criticism that claims to break new ground but cleaves to conventional archives. Judith Halberstam proposes “low theory” as a mode of thinking and writing that operates at many different levels at once. Low theory is derived from eccentric archives. It runs the risk of not being taken seriously. It entails a willingness to fail and to lose one’s way, to pursue difficult questions about complicity, and to find counterintuitive forms of resistance. Tacking back and forth between high theory and low theory, high culture and low culture, Halberstam looks for the unexpected and subversive in popular culture, avant-garde performance, and queer art. She pays particular attention to animated children’s films, revealing narratives filled with …

2 editions

Absolute romp!

Listened to the audio book after hearing I ought to read it from many different place, most compellingly, Jairus Grove. It was so good I had to listen to something else before bed because otherwise I'd get too excited and stay up. I wouldn't say I agree with Halberstam on a lot of his psychoanalytic arguments as I find them hard to substantiate, but it's very worth the read regardless since there is a lot more to the book.