Queer Hispanisms now

Description

Convenor

Isaias Fanlo, University of Cambridge

Summary

Queerness is, among many other things, change; therefore, a queer gaze needs to be aware of mutations and deviations. In their fundamental essay “What’s Queer about Queer Studies Now?” (2005), David L. Eng, Jack Halberstam and José Esteban Muñoz asked themselves a critical question: given all the achievements and the preponderance of identity politics in social, political, and academic discourses, what are the new paths Queer Theories should embrace? “The contemporary mainstreaming of gay and lesbian identity —as a mass-mediated consumer lifestyle and embattled legal category— demands a renewed queer studies ever vigilant to the fact that sexuality is intersectional, not extraneous to other modes of different”, the authors claim (1).

Queer Hispanists have hitherto explored the state of the issue and the new divergences of the discipline, in volumes like ¿Entiendes? Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings (1995), Hispanisms and Homosexualities (1998), and Queer Iberia. Sexualities, Cultures, and Crossings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance (1999). But what happens to Queer Hispanisms Now? Have Queer Studies in the field of Hispanism transcended the initial emphasis on the sociocultural outpouring of desire and sexuality and its radical potential? How can a queer gaze articulate crossings and intersections between the different territories and cultures included within the field (Peninsular Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Spanish Latin America, Portugal, Brazil, Native Cultures)?

The panels in this conference will be organised around critical debates currently taking place in the field of Queer Studies. The panellists will be invited to contribute to those debates by exploring the intersections between queerness and Hispanism.

It is time to think about Queer Hispanisms Now.

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