A_Sociality as a Model Figure of Ambiguity
Ambiguity has been the guiding motive of my queer theoretical considerations from the very beginning. Early on I propose to characterize queer politics through strategies of undisambiguation or equivocation (VerUneindeutigung) rather than diversification or abolishment of heteronormative sexual diff...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture
2021-12-01
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| Series: | On_Culture |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/onculture/article/view/1255/1418 |
| _version_ | 1798020955507785728 |
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| author | Antke A. Engel |
| author_facet | Antke A. Engel |
| author_sort | Antke A. Engel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Ambiguity has been the guiding motive of my queer theoretical considerations from the very beginning. Early on I propose to characterize queer politics through strategies of undisambiguation or equivocation (VerUneindeutigung) rather than diversification or abolishment of heteronormative sexual difference (Engel 2002). In the essay I will reconstruct the different epistemological steps from undisambiguation through queer politics of paradox to what I call today ‘queerness as lived ambiguity’. I will explicate how the notion of ambiguity fulfills a double function in queer theory, namely underlining ambiguity’s livability (multidimensional identities are neither stable nor coherent) and explaining its political potential (overcoming clear-cut borders and simplified antagonisms). In the main part of the essay I will focus on a_sociality as figure of ambiguity, arguing that queerness as lived ambiguity goes along with an understanding of relationality and kinship defined by a continuum or simultaneity of sociality, anti-sociality, and asociality, named a_sociality. My thesis is that in avowing the ambiguity of a_sociality it becomes possible to move towards forms of cohabitation under conditions of social and global heterogeneity. However, a_sociality is defined not only by ambiguity but also by ambivalence. It is from this proximate though distinct relation that politics evolve. What Judith Butler (2020) discusses as an ethical attitude of ‘aggressive nonviolence’ turns out to be an ambiguous term that fosters decisions that simultaneously acknowledge and overcome ambivalence. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T17:06:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-afe40ba74fb24ae79fca3a68a9a98039 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2366-4142 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T17:06:07Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture |
| record_format | Article |
| series | On_Culture |
| spelling | doaj.art-afe40ba74fb24ae79fca3a68a9a980392022-12-22T04:13:01ZengInternational Graduate Centre for the Study of CultureOn_Culture2366-41422021-12-011210.22029/oc.2021.1255A_Sociality as a Model Figure of AmbiguityAntke A. EngelAmbiguity has been the guiding motive of my queer theoretical considerations from the very beginning. Early on I propose to characterize queer politics through strategies of undisambiguation or equivocation (VerUneindeutigung) rather than diversification or abolishment of heteronormative sexual difference (Engel 2002). In the essay I will reconstruct the different epistemological steps from undisambiguation through queer politics of paradox to what I call today ‘queerness as lived ambiguity’. I will explicate how the notion of ambiguity fulfills a double function in queer theory, namely underlining ambiguity’s livability (multidimensional identities are neither stable nor coherent) and explaining its political potential (overcoming clear-cut borders and simplified antagonisms). In the main part of the essay I will focus on a_sociality as figure of ambiguity, arguing that queerness as lived ambiguity goes along with an understanding of relationality and kinship defined by a continuum or simultaneity of sociality, anti-sociality, and asociality, named a_sociality. My thesis is that in avowing the ambiguity of a_sociality it becomes possible to move towards forms of cohabitation under conditions of social and global heterogeneity. However, a_sociality is defined not only by ambiguity but also by ambivalence. It is from this proximate though distinct relation that politics evolve. What Judith Butler (2020) discusses as an ethical attitude of ‘aggressive nonviolence’ turns out to be an ambiguous term that fosters decisions that simultaneously acknowledge and overcome ambivalence.https://journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/onculture/article/view/1255/1418queer theoryambiguityambivalencepoststructuralist politicssocial theory |
| spellingShingle | Antke A. Engel A_Sociality as a Model Figure of Ambiguity On_Culture queer theory ambiguity ambivalence poststructuralist politics social theory |
| title | A_Sociality as a Model Figure of Ambiguity |
| title_full | A_Sociality as a Model Figure of Ambiguity |
| title_fullStr | A_Sociality as a Model Figure of Ambiguity |
| title_full_unstemmed | A_Sociality as a Model Figure of Ambiguity |
| title_short | A_Sociality as a Model Figure of Ambiguity |
| title_sort | a sociality as a model figure of ambiguity |
| topic | queer theory ambiguity ambivalence poststructuralist politics social theory |
| url | https://journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/onculture/article/view/1255/1418 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT antkeaengel asocialityasamodelfigureofambiguity |