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Summary:

"According to David Halperin, sexuality in our time is typified by a 'crisis in contemporary sexual definition'. What is sexuality? What does it mean to have a sexual identity or orientation? What is the relationship between sexuality as a knowledge construct, on one hand, and the often messy flows of desire and practices of love, on the other? How and why are some sexual, erotic, and intimate practices normalized and others marginalized? Queer Theory has emerged in the West as one of the most provocative analytical tools in the humanities and social sciences. It scrutinizes identity and social structures that take heteronormativity for granted--that do not question the social construction of heterosexuality as normative in relation to its oppositional binary, homosexuality. At the same time, bisexuality is a practice, identity, and orientation that challenges the binary logic around which cultural notions of sexuality are organized. It is a portal to the imagination of a world of amorous expression beyond that divide. This provocative collection presents bisexuality and queer theory as two parallel thought collectives that have made significant contributions to cultural discourses about sexual and amorous practices since the onset of the AIDS era, and explores the ideas that circulate in these thought collectives today. We learn much about the construction and experience of sexuality, and the power it still holds throughout the contemporary Western world to shape identities and practices. This volume challenges our understanding of what it means to be sexual, to have a sexual identity, and to practise the arts of loving. This book was orginally published as a special issue of the Journal of Bisexuality."--Publisher's website.

Table of Contents:

• Bisexuality and queer theory : an introduction / Jonathan Alexander and Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio
• pt. 1. Theories.
• Playing with Butler and Foucault : bisexuality and queer theory / April S. Callis
• Querying theory and politics : the epistemic (dis)location of bisexuality within queer theory / Maria Gurevich, Helen Bailey and Jo Bower
• Reclaiming sexual difference : what queer theory can't tell us about sexuality / Susan Feldman
• Bisexuality in psychoanalytic theory: interpreting the resistance / Esther Rapoport
• pt. 2. Readings.
• Queering queer theory, or why bisexuality matters / Laura Erickson-Schroth and Jennifer Mitchell
• Refusing Butler's binary : bisexuality and performative melancholia in Mrs. Dalloway / Nowell Marshall
• Plural happiness : bi- and poly-triangulations in Balasko's French twist / Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio
• pt. 3. Socialities.
• "All the world is queer save thee and me ..." : defining queer and bi at a critical sexology seminar / Meg Barker, Christina Richards and Helen Bowes-Catton
• Adjusting the borders : bisexual passing and queer theory / Jessa Lingel
• Bisexuals in relationships : uncoupling intimacy from gender ontology / Malena Gustavson
• Compulsory bisexuality? : the challenges of modern sexual fluidity / Breanne Fahs
• pt. 4. Responses.
• Thirteen ways of looking at a bisexual / David M. Halperin.

Contributors:

Alexander, Jonathan, 1967- , editor

Anderlini-D'Onofrio, Serena, 1954- , editor

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Related Works:

Journal of bisexuality

Subjects:

Bisexuality

Queer theory

General Notes:

"Reproduction of the Journal of Bisexuality, volume 9, issues 3-4"--Title page verso.
"First issued in paperback 2014"--Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Physical Description:

xi, 270 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Call Numbers:

HQ74 .B583 2012

ISBNs:

9780415686716 (hbk.)
0415686717 (hbk.)
9781138817425 (pbk.)
1138817422 (pbk.)

OCLC Numbers:

751734056