Explain Exam Format
Return to Butler
Discuss Crip Theory
Return to discussion from the week on Feminist Disability Studies
Review/Cover Postmodernism & Poststructuralist Theories
Explore Queer Theory
Note: Judith Lorber and Victoria Bromley will be referenced, no assigned readings from them.
Weight of Exam: 25% of final course mark
Duration: 3-hour exam scheduled (typically 2 hours)
Exam Date: December 19, 2024, at 9:00 AM, FNB 1250
Structure: Two parts, each worth equal marks
Important Instruction: Avoid repeating arguments/content across the exam.
Marks: 30 marks total; 10 marks per response
Choices: Choose 3 out of 5 items
Time: 1 hour plus planning time
Response Requirements:
Define/explain the term/item or identify and elucidate the major ideas of a quote.
Situate the item within the broader text/lecture ideas or connect to another thinker's ideas.
Explain thoroughly with examples.
Suggestion: 3/4 page single spaced per answer.
Marks: 30 marks total; 15 marks per response
Choices: Choose 2 out of 3 questions
Time: 1 hour plus planning time
Response Requirements:
Provide sustained/detailed analyses and examples from the course.
Suggestion: 1-1.5 pages single spaced per answer.
Encouragement: Good luck, exam review in the last class!
Key Topics: Grievability, Precarity, Intelligibility
Quote from Butler (2004):
Questions on who counts as human and what makes a life grievable.
Discussion relates to global events, with sensitivity to appropriating real experiences for theoretical advancement.
Core Ideas:
Challenges compulsory able-bodiedness and able-mindedness
Reclaims „crip“ from derogatory use
Encompasses a broad range of disability locations
Advocates for ‘crip’tical thinking, promoting cultural analysis of normative concepts
Emphasizes an intersectional approach, especially between queerness and disability
Understanding Crip Theory:
Challenges binary discourses of normal/deviant bodies and pleasures
Encourages solidarity across various disabilities and critical perspectives (Alison Kafer).
Key Idea:
‘Cripping’ disability studies involves acknowledging our shared embodied experiences
Highlights the need for collective identity without appropriating disability narratives.
Discussion Point:
Queering as a concept helps to position cripping and queering against normative practices and understandings.
Key Concept:
Compulsory able-bodiedness is akin to compulsory heterosexuality; both are systems reliant on exclusion.
Ideal states (ability, heterosexuality) are unattainable.
Butler's Argument:
Gender is produced through the repetition of norms, with no essence prior to performance.
The identity is constructed through performances, with no “doer behind the deed.”
Butler on Identity:
Identity claims regulate and totalize individual experience, potentially obscuring diversity within categories (e.g., "lesbians").
Discussion:
Explore the 'constitutional outside' in relation to gender identity.
Understanding Binaries:
Binaries are mutually constitutive; the excluded 'other' is integral to identity.
Normal versus deviant operates through exclusion; individuals define themselves in opposition to the 'not' of their identity.
Butler’s View:
Willing to identify as ‘lesbian’ but desires the meaning to remain ambiguous.
Constructs identity as politically engaged, emphasizing 'necessary trouble' within categories.
Transition to Queer Theory:
Reflection on the origins of Pomo and Poststructuralism within Queer Theory.
Question:
What does Postmodernism (Pomo) mean?
Exploration of its relation to Poststructuralism and Queer theory.
Nature of Pomo:
Postmodernism resists definitive explanations, paralleling Queer theory's nature.
Both eschew categorization, emphasizing fluid understanding.
Cultural Reference:
Images and cartoons reflect critical humor on Pomo and its critiques.
Key Features:
Suspicion toward grand narratives and favors context, ambiguity, and uncertainty
Recognizes truth as relational and shaped by power dynamics.
Queer Theory:
Mirrors Pomo questioning of the natural and normal; advocates for ambiguity.
At a Glance:
Marked by skepticism and the questioning of fixed references; critiques stability in the understanding of truth and objectivity.
Distinction Made:
Truth viewed through power relations, denouncing the idea of a stable self; consciousness formed through actions.
Crucial Argument:
Social structures based on binaries can be deconstructed to reveal power operations within oppositions.
Thought Provocation:
Consider examples illustrating value-laden binaries within social structures.
Feminist Hulk:
Playful critique of patriarchal values and a humorous take on identity politics.
Application of Queer Theory:
Engaging with Butler’s ideas to destabilize normal and deviant identity categories.
Historical Context:
Emerged in the 1990s; connects to Gay Liberation movement.
Understand the fluidity of the term "queer" as a positive reclamation.
Visual Context:
Representation of queer theory within broader discussions on gender inclusivity.
Exploration Topic:
Engage with Barker and Scheele's insights on the critical interpretations of "queer" terminology.
Key Quote from Michael Warner:
“Queering” is resisting normative ideals in identity and behavior.
Discussion Focus:
The fluid and unstable nature of relationships between gender, sex, and sexuality in queer theory.
Concept Illustration:
Understanding the biological and social constructs framing the 'Heterosexual Matrix'.
Cultural Reference:
Continue exploring visual representations of queer and heterosexual constructs.
Comma of Focus:
Playful questioning of how identities around gender and sexuality are categorized; appreciate the instability of these identities and their political implications.
Critical Evaluation:
Reflect on race, class, and other intersections within queer theory.
Recap of Key Ideas:
Understanding Butler’s perspective on gender as a consequence of regulatory norms; engagement with performativity theory.
Week 10 Lecture
Explain Exam Format
Return to Butler
Discuss Crip Theory
Return to discussion from the week on Feminist Disability Studies
Review/Cover Postmodernism & Poststructuralist Theories
Explore Queer Theory
Note: Judith Lorber and Victoria Bromley will be referenced, no assigned readings from them.
Weight of Exam: 25% of final course mark
Duration: 3-hour exam scheduled (typically 2 hours)
Exam Date: December 19, 2024, at 9:00 AM, FNB 1250
Structure: Two parts, each worth equal marks
Important Instruction: Avoid repeating arguments/content across the exam.
Marks: 30 marks total; 10 marks per response
Choices: Choose 3 out of 5 items
Time: 1 hour plus planning time
Response Requirements:
Define/explain the term/item or identify and elucidate the major ideas of a quote.
Situate the item within the broader text/lecture ideas or connect to another thinker's ideas.
Explain thoroughly with examples.
Suggestion: 3/4 page single spaced per answer.
Marks: 30 marks total; 15 marks per response
Choices: Choose 2 out of 3 questions
Time: 1 hour plus planning time
Response Requirements:
Provide sustained/detailed analyses and examples from the course.
Suggestion: 1-1.5 pages single spaced per answer.
Encouragement: Good luck, exam review in the last class!
Key Topics: Grievability, Precarity, Intelligibility
Quote from Butler (2004):
Questions on who counts as human and what makes a life grievable.
Discussion relates to global events, with sensitivity to appropriating real experiences for theoretical advancement.
Core Ideas:
Challenges compulsory able-bodiedness and able-mindedness
Reclaims „crip“ from derogatory use
Encompasses a broad range of disability locations
Advocates for ‘crip’tical thinking, promoting cultural analysis of normative concepts
Emphasizes an intersectional approach, especially between queerness and disability
Understanding Crip Theory:
Challenges binary discourses of normal/deviant bodies and pleasures
Encourages solidarity across various disabilities and critical perspectives (Alison Kafer).
Key Idea:
‘Cripping’ disability studies involves acknowledging our shared embodied experiences
Highlights the need for collective identity without appropriating disability narratives.
Discussion Point:
Queering as a concept helps to position cripping and queering against normative practices and understandings.
Key Concept:
Compulsory able-bodiedness is akin to compulsory heterosexuality; both are systems reliant on exclusion.
Ideal states (ability, heterosexuality) are unattainable.
Butler's Argument:
Gender is produced through the repetition of norms, with no essence prior to performance.
The identity is constructed through performances, with no “doer behind the deed.”
Butler on Identity:
Identity claims regulate and totalize individual experience, potentially obscuring diversity within categories (e.g., "lesbians").
Discussion:
Explore the 'constitutional outside' in relation to gender identity.
Understanding Binaries:
Binaries are mutually constitutive; the excluded 'other' is integral to identity.
Normal versus deviant operates through exclusion; individuals define themselves in opposition to the 'not' of their identity.
Butler’s View:
Willing to identify as ‘lesbian’ but desires the meaning to remain ambiguous.
Constructs identity as politically engaged, emphasizing 'necessary trouble' within categories.
Transition to Queer Theory:
Reflection on the origins of Pomo and Poststructuralism within Queer Theory.
Question:
What does Postmodernism (Pomo) mean?
Exploration of its relation to Poststructuralism and Queer theory.
Nature of Pomo:
Postmodernism resists definitive explanations, paralleling Queer theory's nature.
Both eschew categorization, emphasizing fluid understanding.
Cultural Reference:
Images and cartoons reflect critical humor on Pomo and its critiques.
Key Features:
Suspicion toward grand narratives and favors context, ambiguity, and uncertainty
Recognizes truth as relational and shaped by power dynamics.
Queer Theory:
Mirrors Pomo questioning of the natural and normal; advocates for ambiguity.
At a Glance:
Marked by skepticism and the questioning of fixed references; critiques stability in the understanding of truth and objectivity.
Distinction Made:
Truth viewed through power relations, denouncing the idea of a stable self; consciousness formed through actions.
Crucial Argument:
Social structures based on binaries can be deconstructed to reveal power operations within oppositions.
Thought Provocation:
Consider examples illustrating value-laden binaries within social structures.
Feminist Hulk:
Playful critique of patriarchal values and a humorous take on identity politics.
Application of Queer Theory:
Engaging with Butler’s ideas to destabilize normal and deviant identity categories.
Historical Context:
Emerged in the 1990s; connects to Gay Liberation movement.
Understand the fluidity of the term "queer" as a positive reclamation.
Visual Context:
Representation of queer theory within broader discussions on gender inclusivity.
Exploration Topic:
Engage with Barker and Scheele's insights on the critical interpretations of "queer" terminology.
Key Quote from Michael Warner:
“Queering” is resisting normative ideals in identity and behavior.
Discussion Focus:
The fluid and unstable nature of relationships between gender, sex, and sexuality in queer theory.
Concept Illustration:
Understanding the biological and social constructs framing the 'Heterosexual Matrix'.
Cultural Reference:
Continue exploring visual representations of queer and heterosexual constructs.
Comma of Focus:
Playful questioning of how identities around gender and sexuality are categorized; appreciate the instability of these identities and their political implications.
Critical Evaluation:
Reflect on race, class, and other intersections within queer theory.
Recap of Key Ideas:
Understanding Butler’s perspective on gender as a consequence of regulatory norms; engagement with performativity theory.