Call for Papers

SCS Queer Caucus

Society for Cinema Studies Conference

May 24-27, 2001, Washington, D.C.



"Re-Conditioning the 'Queer':  Moving-Image Theory and Culture in the Age of

Global Transnationalism"



In contemporary academic discourse, "queer" has come to signify a

particularly postmodern mode of socio-cultural subversion.  In Eve

Sedgwick's classic description, "queer" designates an "open mesh of

possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and

excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone's gender, of

anyone's sexuality aren't made (or can't be made) to signify monolithically:

the experimental linguistic, epistemological, representational, political

attaching to the very many of us who may at times be moved to describe

ourselves as (among other possibilities) pushy femmes, radical faeries,

fantasists, drags, clones, leatherfolk, ladies in tuxedos, feminist women or

feminist men, masturbators, bulldaggers, divas, Snap!queens, butch bottoms,

storytellers, transsexuals, aunties, wanna-bes, lesbian-identified men or

lesbians who sleep with men, or people able to relish, learn from, or

identify with such (Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick, "Queer and Now" in TENDENCIES, 8).



This understanding of "queer" as sex-gender extremity, oversufficiency, and

differential superfluity has indeed disseminated quickly and energetically

across the rapidly intensifying ranges of international moving-image

culture.  Over the past decade, film, television, and the Internet have

supplied "queers" with tools to re-envision sex-gender subjectivity and

social relations on an unprecedented scale, with "queer" sensibilities and

critical projects emerging globally.



At the same time, however, the political, economic, and ideological contexts

and determinants of "queer" moving-image culture have not generally been

acknowledged, much less challenged.  That the intensification of

international moving-image culture, especially in the Third World and former

Soviet bloc, is largely a hegemonic offensive launched in the interests of

primarily U.S.-based transnational corporations (TNCs) remains a fact worthy

of sustained interrogation by and within "queer theoretical" circles.  Is it

possible that "queer theorists" and "queer" moving-image artists exist who

oppose this offensive?  Might they voice their outrage and come to stand

firmly, in solidarity, against the TNC-interested dominance of international

media, which would co-opt the "queer" as paradigm of global deregulation and

reposition "queerness" as a stereotypical vehicle for "creative" adventure

and celebration of "success"?



In view of this possibility, the Queer Caucus of the Society for Cinema

Studies is calling for papers that address the following questions and issues:



1) Does the internationalization of the "queer" through global moving-image

culture provide us with reason to celebrate?  Which "queer theoretical" and

"queer" cultural practices "succeed" on the global market, and which are

designated margins of risk periodically deemed expendible because

"unmarketable"?  Are the gay.coms and planetout.coms marks of "queer"

liberation or harbingers of ever-extensive super-exploitation?  How might

"queer" signify "creativity" and "success" without also reifying the

relations of transnational capitalism?



2) What has been the function of glbt and glbt-friendly international film

festivals in the dissemination of the "queer"?  How do these festival

programs (e.g., romantic comedy headliners, corporate sponsorships, "indie"

film promotion, the turn to "spirituality") work to strengthen or undermine

the project of "queer" liberation?



3) Have "queer theory" and "postfeminism" developed a synergy?  What might

be the relationship between "queer" deregulation of sex-gender subjectivity

and "postfeminist" abandonment of progressive legislation including

Affirmation Action/Equal Opportunity?  Have critiques of this phenomenon

been sufficient to stave off "queer" reaffirmations of laissez-faire?



4) How might "queer" racism and anti-feminism be related to this phenomenon?

In what ways do "queer" racism and anti-feminism operate under the guise of

a celebratory transnational "queer culture"?  How does the marketablity of

"global queer" and its purported creative difference satisfy the

assimilationist and ideological dreams of liberal humanism and (post)western

imperialism?



E-mail 250-300-word proposals for 20-min. papers to:



Terri Ginsberg, Co-chair <[log in to unmask]>

AND

David Gerstner, Co-chair <[log in to unmask]>



Deadline:  August 31, 2000



Visit the SCS Queer Caucus web site at:

http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/dagerstner/SCSQueerCaucus.html



(Participants must be members of SCS.)



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