Tutorial in Ethics, Society and Aesthetics: Queer Theory and the Critique of Western Subject

Content

Debates in queer theory can be seen as general critique of Western concept of subjectivity. Queer theory takes on workshop the issue of the classical concept of rationality and representation which were formed and established in the modern philosophy from 17th century.

This course offers a philosophical introduction to the current problems of sexuality and gender through examining the debates in queer theory on subjectivity from the end of the 1980's till current time. The course material includes key texts from authors who use different methods of rethinking or deconstructing the subject from different positions: neo-marxism, psychoanalysis and post-structuralism such as Bersani, Butler, Halberstam, de Lauretis, Oksala, Pulkkinen, Rose, Wittig. These authors analyse contemporary theories of subjectivity from the very critical point of view. The main question for them is how the Western concept of subject works in the 'matrix' of heterosexual relations and how it excludes from itself the difference. These problems can be easily linked to the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes and many others. We will also focus on queer political and cultural production which examines the collective subject. The question we will pose is: how queer theory as a critique of Western subjectivity challenges concepts of politics, epistemology, ethics and representation.