Queer youth enactments of agency, resistance, and worldmaking have been under researched in rhetorical studies. Investigating how queer world making for youth takes place at a space entitled Camp Half-Blood, a live action role playing (LARP) fantasy camp for ages 8-18, this study contends that queer youth at Camp Half-Blood utilize Burke's equipment for living, disidentifications, queer relationality, and queer hope as embodiments that create queer lifeworlds and mobilize queer campers toward queer livable futures. By interviewing campers on their perspectives of being queer at camp and the impact LARPing had on the creation of queer youth identity, as well as the ways LARPing and camp affected queer youth camper envisioning of the future, this research maintains that queer youth have the potential to utilize LARPing in radical ways to revise (cis)heteronormative and hegemonic understandings of their social standings in the world. Camp Half-Blood also offers an opportunity to bring research on queer youth in fandoms from online spaces to offline spaces and extends research on youth agency and youth queer world making.

The Problems of Protest and the Persistence of Domination: Social Movement Theory and Bourdieu’s Economy of Practice is a normative intervention into social movement theory and debates about social movement goals, strategies and tactics. The project asks: what normative implications derive from incorporating Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological framework into social movement research? My core arguments are that Bourdieu’s framework has the potential to sensitize activists and analysts to the tension between conformity and failure and that escaping radical/reformist debates requires working through this tension. The dissertation intervenes in social movement theory from within the critical theory tradition by refusing to separate empirical and normative questions. I develop my argument using two strategies. First, I undertake a close reading of Bourdieu’s most important works and the debates they have provoked. Second I apply the conceptual tools this close reading offers to reconsider the logic behind two key social movement theory concepts: collective identity and repertoires of contention. Following a general introduction and literature review, I undertake a close consideration of habitus and an argument for how attention to the suffering produced by symbolic power constitutes grounds for normative justice claims. I then consider how collective identity formation in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer mobilization indicates the presence of symbolic violence, primarily in the form of epistemic violence. Next I argue that the nature of neoliberal symbolic power creates political antinomies for representation and affinity-based segments of the alterglobalization movement. Finally I argue that Bourdieu needs to be balanced by Nietzsche and that an orientation toward ‘overcoming’ offers a way out of the tension between conformity and failure. My findings point to the need for more sophisticated instruments for understanding the relationship between objective interests and subjective perception, impositions of, and challenges to, ‘logical consensus’, and strategies for counter-training and other mechanisms to support activists in resisting symbolic violence. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-01-29 14:14:16.699

Essa dissertação percorre a obra da escritora francesa, Violette Leduc, elaborando uma reflexão crítica a partir das noções de performatividade e performance, tal como conceituadas por Judith Butler. O núcleo da investigação proposta é a maneira como tais noções operam na obra leduciana, sobretudo sua trilogia autobiográfica, composta pelos livros La bâtarde, La folie en tête e La chasse à lamour. A partir da lente da crítica feminista, com especial atenção aos estudos queer (sem, no entanto, esquecer as vertentes críticas que os precedem), a análise da obra de Leduc torna-se, também, uma discussão sobre poder, gêneros, sexualidades e potências da linguagem literária. As narradoras-personagens dos livros de Leduc constantemente se debruçam sobre a própria obra da autora e a tomam para si: reescrevem os livros publicados como ficcionais, denunciam suas estratégias criativas, falam sobre os impasses do exercício da escrita, desestabilizam a obra de Violette Leduc, transformando-a constantemente. Para além disso, há na literatura leduciana um questionamento recorrente das estruturas sociais, culturais e políticas que regulam os gêneros, os desejos e as práticas sexuais. Tanto a lesbiandade, a bissexualidade, a heterossexualidade, a fluidez dos desejos e das possibilidades para sua práxis quanto as feminilidades e masculinidades, são temas narrados e explorados ao longo de toda a trilogia autobiográfica e também dos romances. Tais indagações culminam em transformações na própria escrita literária, revelando como característica central da literatura leduciana a relação simbiótica entre criação (performance) e citação (performatividade). / The following dissertation explores the work of french writer, Violette Leduc through Judith Butlers definition for both gender performativity and performance notions. The investigations core is the part such notions play in Leducs work, especially her autobiographical trilogy, which comprehends the novels La bâtarde, La folie en tête and La chasse à lamour. This research views Leducs work from the feminist criticism perspective, with special attention to queer studies (but without losing account of the critical thinking that preceded it). The result is an literary analysis that transforms into a discussion of various themes, such as power, genders, sexualities and the different potentials for literary language. Leducs autobiographical protagonist-narrators constantly address Leducs own literary work and claim their ownership over it: they rewrite Leducs fiction and also denounce their creative strategies as well as her impasses with literary writing. The result is a narrator that destabilizes Violette Leducs work, persistently transforming it. Beyond that, in the leducian literature there is a recurrent interrogation of social, political and cultural structures that regulate genders, desires and sexual practices. Lesbianhood, bissexuality, heterossexuality, feminility and masculinity as well as desire and its practical potentialities are themes explored throughout the entire autobiographical trilogy and also in the fictional work. Such inquiries result in transformations on the very literary writing, revealing a key aspect of Leducs literature: the symbiotic relationship established between creation (performance) and citation (performativity).

Essa dissertação apresenta resultados da pesquisa Deslenguada: uma figuração da dissidência em val flores, sob orientação do Prof. Dr. Luiz Gonzaga Godoi Trigo, no contexto do mestrado acadêmico em Estudos Culturais, na Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, da Universidade de São Paulo, entre os anos 2016 e 2018. O objeto dessa pesquisa foi a obra Deslenguada: desbordes de una proletária del lenguaje\", publicada na Argentina em 2010 pelas edições Ají de Pollo, por valeria flores, escritora lésbica feminista contemporânea dissidente. Tivemos como objetivo analisar a Deslenguada enquanto figuração, abordando a ideia de uma proletária da linguagem, a fim de reconhecer resistências da dissidência sexual em sua obra. A abordagem teórico-metodológica foi qualitativa e fez uso da Análise do Discurso. Para tal, percorremos os enunciados da resistência e da dissidência. A pesquisa teve caráter exploratório, cujos procedimentos foram a pesquisa bibliográfica e a partir de levantamento de referências teóricas de val flores. Utilizamos coleta de dados da internet, tais como artigos científicos, páginas da web, zines e entrevistas. Para abordar as figurações, passamos inicialmente pelos conhecimentos situados através de autoras como Adrienne Rich (1986), Patricia Hill Collins (1990) e Donna Haraway (1995). O reconhecimento de que a produção literária ou as artes, de maneira geral, estão inseridas numa esfera de disputa (econômica, política e social), produzindo significantes que circulam no imaginário social, nos impulsionou a compreender as maneiras pelas quais estas incidem sobre a produção de subjetividades. Concluímos que a figuração Deslenguada é inscrita como um contraponto, numa produção dissidente e imaginativa, perfurando as políticas heterocapitalista branca e patriarcal, que levam os sujeitos da dissidência sexual aos silenciamentos resultantes da opressão masculina e da heteronormatividade que se atualizam por meio da linguagem / This dissertation presents the outcomes of the research Dislanguaged: a dissidence figuration in val flores, upon the guidance of Professor Luiz Gonzaga Godoi Trigo, for the academic masters degree in Cultural Studies, at the Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, University of São Paulo, between 2016 and 2018. This research object was the book Deslenguada: desbordes de una proletária del lenguaje (Dislanguaged: overflows of a language proletarian), published in Argentina, in 2010, by the publisher Ají de Pollo, by valeria flores, contemporary lesbian dissident feminist writer. Our objective was to analyse the expression Dislanguaged as figuration, approaching the idea of a language proletarian, in order to recognize the sexual dissidence resistance in her oeuvre. The theoretical-methodological approach was qualitative and used the speech analysis and, as for this, weve been through the statements of resistance and dissidence. The research has had an exploratory feature, being the procedures both the bibliographical research and val flores theoretical references survey. Weve used internet data such as scientific articles, web pages, zines and interviews. As to approach the figurations, we first turned to the situated knowledges brought by the authors Adrienne Rich (1986), Patricia Hill Collins (1990) and Donna Haraway (1995). Through the recognition that the literary production is inserted in a dispute realm economical, political and social -, coming up with signifiers that are present on the social imaginary, weve been driven to understand how this falls on the subjectivity production. Weve concluded that the figuration of Dislanguaged is inscribed on an imaginative and unsubmissive production, cracking the white and patriarchy heterocapitalist politics, as a counterpoise that silences the sexual dissidence, resulting from the masculine oppression and the heteronormativity that are updated due the language usage

Cette analyse a pour but de dénoncer les mythes créateurs du féminin et du masculin hérités des politiques culturelles sexuelles érigées au creuset de la rencontre coloniale. L’étude de A Married Woman (Manju Kapur), Babyji (Abha Dawesar), Indian Tango (Ananda Devi), trois romans présentant le lesbianisme comme une stratégie féministe d’émancipation, permet de mettre au jour diverses dynamiques discursives, d’exploiter le concept de représentation, et d’interroger les catégories préexistantes. Ces trois romans sont en effet écrits par des femmes participant à la culture indo-hindoue, et proposent des héroïnes à la similarité troublante : brahmines, habitant Delhi et insatisfaites de l’immobilisme liberticide de leur genre. Le préjudice hétéropatriarcal gaine les individus plaqués à l’intersection de leurs appartenances identitaires diverses et superposées : le genre, la culture, la sexualité… Le chemin de ces héroïnes suit ainsi une évolution interrogeant les inventions patriarcales de l’identité de la femme indo-hindoue. Au-delà de la dénonciation des dérives de son essentialisation, c’est sa transgression qui est éblouissante, parce qu’elle est sexuelle et lesbienne, engageant ainsi les possibilités d’une altérité, d’une alternative, d’un devenir différent. Ces textes questionnent alors la poésie et l’efficacité d’une esthétique lesbienne, la validité démiurge d’une utopie lesbienne, et le symbolisme d’un motif qui unit femmes de papier et autrices de chair au sein d’un positionnement récusant la subalternité implicite de catégories oppressives et obsolètes. En s’emparant de l’ipséité, ces narrations introduisent une poétique queer défiant déterminismes, cristallisations, normes et hiérarchies. Elles ouvrent à des possibilités radicales et multiples d’existences, de créations, signalant la matérialité de marginalités subversives qui problématisent la notion même d’individu, envisagée dans sa perspective hypermoderne. / This analysis aims at denouncing the original myths of the feminine and the masculine, inherited of the sexual cultural politics uprighted in the crucible of the colonial encounter. The study of A Married Woman (Manju Kapur), Babyji (Abha Dawesar), Indian Tango (Ananda Devi), three novels presenting lesbianism as a feminist strategy of emancipation, allows to excavate various discursive dynamics, to exploit the concept of representation, and to interrogate the preexisting categories. These three novels are indeed written by women belonging to the Indo-Hindu culture, and offer heroines with troubling similarities: Brahmines, Delhiites and dissatisfied with the repressions and inertia of their gender. The heteropatriarcal prejudice suffocates the individuals tackled at the intersection of their several and overlapping identity belongings: gender, culture, sexuality… These heroines’ paths hence follow an evolution interrogating the patriarchal inventions of the Indo-Hindu woman’s identity. Beyond the exposition and accusation of its essentialization’s deviations, it is its transgression which is dazzling, because it is sexual and lesbian, introducing the possibilities of an alterity, an alternative, a different becoming. These texts thus question the poetry and efficiency of a lesbian aesthetic, the demiurge validity of a lesbian utopia, and the symbolism of a pattern unifying the paper women and the women writers in a positioning rejecting the implicit subalternity of oppressive and obsolete categories. By getting a hold of ipseity, these narrations introduce a queer poetic defying determinisms, crystallizations, norms and hierarchies. They open to radical and multiple possibilities of living and creating, indicating the materiality of subversive marginalities which problematize the very notion of individual, envisioned in its hypermodern perspective.

Esta tese tem como objetivo principal apresentar Princesa (1994), de Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque e Maurizio Jannelli. Embora escrito a quatro mãos, o texto nasce de uma narrativa em três vozes, dentro do cárcere romano de Rebbibia: Fernanda Farias, uma transexual brasileira; Maurizio Jannelli, um ex-terrorista italiano; Giovanni Tamponi, um ex-assaltante de bancos de origem sarda. Princesa narra a história de múltiplos trânsitos entre cidades, países, identidades, gêneros, consciências, contextos e corpos e, devido à sua particular gênese criativa, de conteúdo, de edição e de publicação, encontra-se em uma zona fronteiriça, o que nos levou a realizar, de forma semelhante, longas e intricadas viagens pela teoria literária. Assim, para o estudo da obra, recorremos à noção de entrelugar, com base nos pressupostos de Santiago (1971), Bhabha (1998) e à teoria da tradução, de Santos (2002); de autoria, gênero e nacionalidade literária; de dialogismo com obras pertencentes tanto ao sistema literário italiano quanto brasileiro; e, por último, nos apoiamos nos estudos da teoria queer, bem como nos Estudos Culturais e Pós-Coloniais, na medida em que a narrativa entrelaça a história da transformação de um corpo, para além dos limites do sexo e do gênero, com questões como pertencimento, Estado-Nação e migrações contemporâneas. / This thesis main objective is to introduce Princesa (1994), written by Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque e Maurizio Jannelli. Although it was written by four hands, the text stems off a narrative of three voices, inside Rome´s prison of Rebbibia: Fernanda Farias, a Brazilian transsexual; Maurizio Janelli, an Italian ex-terrorist; Giovanni Tamponi, a former Sardinian bank robber. Princesa narrates the story of multiple transits between cities, countries, identities, genders, consciences, contexts and bodies and, due to its particular creative genesis, of content, edition and publication, lies on a borderland, which makes us realize, in a similar way, long and intricated journeys through literary theory. Therefore, for the study of this work we resort to the notion of in-between, based on the assumptions of Santiago (1971), Bhabha (1998) and on the theory of translation of Santos (2002); on authorship, genres and literary nationalities; on dialogism with titles belonging to the Italian literature system as to the Brazilian; and lastly, support ourselves on the study of the queer theory, as to the Postcolonial and Cultural Studies, and as far as the narrative interweaves the story of the transformation of a body, to beyond the limits of gender, with matters as belonging,Nation state and contemporary migration.

Este trabalho tem como propósito lançar uma reflexão sobre as maneiras pelas quais os usos descontextualizados da roupa podem consistir em uma subversão do sistema, sobretudo por meio das práticas de crossdressing. A moda, aqui, foi analisada em dois movimentos: o primeiro, que consiste no reforço ao modelo binário de gênero; e o segundo, em que se aproveita de fissuras oriundas da própria norma para causar-lhe perturbações. A partir de referenciais teóricometodológicos feministas e queer, foram realizadas investigações qualitativas, como entrevistas e pesquisas de campo, que possibilitaram uma perspectiva dos sujeitos como provisórios e cambiantes, contribuindo para que suas narrativas fossem compreendidas de maneira mais ampla e menos limitada. A roupa, no contexto do crossdressing, foi observada como parte fundamental da construção das subjetividades e da imagem feminina à qual as crossdressers aspiram, denunciando precisamente o caráter construído da naturalidade dos gêneros que encontra endosso na moda. Ainda que parte dos discursos de produção da normalidade, a vestimenta encerra inumeráveis possibilidades de (r)existência que desestabilizam e desmantelam hegemonias / This research aims to propose a reflection on the ways through which the decontextualized uses of clothing can consist in a subversion of the system, especially through crossdressing practices. Hence fashion was analyzed in two movements: the first, which consists in reinforcing the binary gender model; and the second, in which it takes advantage of the cracks originating from the very norm in order to disturb it. From feminist and queer theoretical-methodological frameworks, qualitative inquiries such as interviews and fieldwork were carried out, which permitted a perspective of the subjects as provisional and mutable, allowing their narratives to be comprehended in a wider and less constrained manner. Clothing, within the crossdressing context, was seen as a fundamental part in the construction of the subjectivities and of the feminine image to which crossdressers aspire. That way, it precisely exposes the fabricated character of gender, which finds support in fashion. Though being part of the production of normality discourses, clothes encompass numberless possibilities of (r)existence that destabilize and dismantle hegemonies

Ce travail s’attache à étudier les éventuels féminismes de Desperate Housewives. La peinture que la série propose de femmes et mères au foyer américaines désespérées est a priori le lieu d’une dénonciation de leur vie et de leur condition qui n’est pas sans rappeler celle de Betty Friedan dans The Feminine Mystique au début des années soixante. De plus, de nombreuses contradictions du féminisme américain (en fait constitué de nombreuses sous-catégories et sensibilités) y trouvent un écho. Cette multiplicité des interprétations possibles de Desperate Housewives, ainsi que sa composante postmoderne et camp, en font le lieu privilégié d’un féminisme queer propre à la série. / This study investigates the feminist messages conveyed by Desperate Housewives. The depiction of desperate American housewives and stay-at-home mothers seems at first to be a scathing indictment of their plight, not unlike that of Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique.Furthermore many inner dissensions of American feminism (a term far more pluralistic than one might think) are voiced in the television series. The different ways Desperate Housewives can be interpreted, along with its postmodern and camp components, make it possible for an idiosyncratic brand of queer feminism to emerge.

The Atlantic Canadian provinces (Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia) have long been associated with agricultural romanticism. Economically and culturally entrenched in a stereotype of quaintness (Anne of Green Gables is just one of many examples), the region continuously falls into a cycle of inferiority. In this thesis, I argue that queer theory can be infused into performance analysis to better situate local theatre practice as a site of mobilization. Using terms and concepts from queer geographers and other scholars, particularly those who address capitalism (Gibson-Graham, Massey), this research outlines a methodology of performance analysis that looks through a queer lens in order to destabilize normative assumptions about Atlantic Canada. Three contemporary performances are studied in detail: Christian Barry, Ben Caplan, and Hannah Moscovitch's Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, Ryan Griffith's The Boat, and Xavier Gould’s digital personality “Jass-Sainte Bourque”. Combining Ric Knowles' "dramaturgy of the perverse" (The Theatre of Form 1999) with Sara Ahmed's "queer phenomenology" (Queer Phenomenology 2006) allows for a thorough queer analysis of these three performances. I argue that such an approach positions new Atlantic Canadian performances and dramaturgies as sites of aesthetic and semantic disorientation. Building on Jill Dolan's "utopian performatives" (Utopia in Performance 2005), wherein the audiences experience a collective "lifting above" of normative dramaturgical structures, my use of "queer phenomenology" fosters a plurality of unique perspectives. The process of complicating normalizing tendencies helps dismantle generalizing cultural stereotypes.

A presente pesquisa busca empreender um mapeamento de produções cinematográficas, nacionais e internacionais, que abordam a transgeneridade. A partir desse procedimento, observamos as regularidades que emergiram desse conjunto de produções. Objetivamos traçar um percurso que inscreve esse esforço num plano micropolítico, uma vez que interroga criticamente as práticas comunicacionais e discursivas do cinema hegemônico. Para tanto, exploramos aproximações e tensionamentos provocados pelos estudos queer considerando, aqui, que é esse conjunto de noções que melhor dá conta de pensar a condição trans enquanto um deslocamento que se impõe ao sistema binário masculino/feminino e, como consequência, ao sistema sexo/gênero. Esse percurso conduzido, ainda, sob um viés discursivo/foucaultiano, traz como implicação um profundo questionamento daquilo que configura o humano ao interrogar os biopoderes, os limites do corpo e os regimes de verdade que o produzem. Desse modo, essa pesquisa guia-se pela seguinte questão: como se configuram os discursos que produzem e expressam os corpos trans no cinema? Partimos das análises dos filmes Meninos Não Choram (1999), Tomboy (2011), Num Ano de 13 Luas (1978), Tirésia (2003), Lado Selvagem (2004), Vera (1987), Tangerine (2015), Paris is Burning (1991) para examinar as regularidades observadas, supondo ser possível interrogar as condições de possibilidade de novas formas de expressar a transgeneridade, no sentido de configurar linhas de fuga significativas para as audiovisualidades. / The present research seeks to undertake a mapping of cinematographic productions, national and international, that deal with transgender characters. From this procedure, we observe the regularities that emerged from this set of productions. We aim to trace a path that inscribes this effort in a micropolitical plan, since it critically questions the communicational and discursive practices of hegemonic cinema. To do so, we explore approximations and tensions provoked by queer studies, considering here it is this set of notions that best account for thinking the trans condition as a displacement that imposes itself on the male / female binary system and, as a consequence, on the sex / gender system . This course, conducted even under a discursive / Foucaultian bias, entails a deep questioning of what constitutes the human being when interrogating biopowers, the limits of the body and the regimes of truth that produce it. Thus, this research is guided by the following question: how are the discourses that produce and express trans bodies in cinema? We start from the analysis of the films Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Tomboy (2011), In a Year of 13 Moons (1978), Tiresia (2003), Wild Side (2004), Vera (1987), Tangerine (2015) and Paris is Burning (1991) to examine observed regularities, assuming that it is possible to interrogate the conditions of possibility of new ways of expressing transgender experiences, in order to configure significant escape lines for audiovisuals.