How do you perceive the relationship
between Beyonce and Shakira?
Why is their performance so
sexualized?
What if they were men?
What difference does it make?
Who is Eve Sedgwick?
• 1950-2009
• Received undergraduate degree from
Cornell and Ph.D from Yale in
English.
• One of the founders of queer theory inspired by Foucault's work.
• Married to Hal Sedgwick in 1969.
• Professor of English at Duke and City
University of New York.
• Other major works: "Epistemology of
the Closet" (1990); "A Dialogue on
Love" (1999); "Touching Feeling :
Affect, Pedagogy, Perfomativity"
(2003)
• Author of: "Between
Men: English Literature
and Male Homosocial
Desire" (1985)
Sedgwick's
Between Men: English Literature
and Male Homosocial Desire
• Homosocial: social relationships between members of the
same sex
• Homosocial desire: Umbrella term for all types of same-sex
relationships - romantic, platonic, antagonistic, etc.
• Male vs. Female
• Distinction between homosocial and homosexual desire is
only applicable for men
• Men looking out for the interests of other men vs. men
loving other men
Now let's get Wilde...
• Homophobia is the interruption in the homosocial
continuum between homosexuality and the rest of the
continuum, according to Sedgwick.
• A predominantly homophobic society deems a romantic
relationship between two men to be unacceptable; therefore
men are forced to look for excuses to connect on a deeper
level.
• In "The Portrait of Mr. W.H.", the theory of Shakespeare's
sonnets is the excuse for the characters to connect on that
deeper level.
• The interruption in their relationship is represented by their
time apart; society creates a difference in their beliefs and
their relationship.
Homophobia and Patriarchy
• For our society, homophobia is a consequence of patriarchal
institutions such as heterosexual marriage.
• Femininity is defined by what appeals to men as a part of
patriarchal gender roles. Homophobia is created out of this
in that men appealing to each other makes them “feminine”it defies their gender role.
• SO: Patriarchy --> misogyny --> homophobia.
• Although most patriarchal societies have historically
exhibited homophobia, Sedgwick argues that it is not a
requirement.
• This point is illustrated by Athenian society.
Sedgwick's
Erotic Triangle
• Girard's Ménage à trois meets Freud's Oedipal drama
• Consists of two men and a woman
• The woman is used primarily to deepen male relationship
"...Use of women as exchangeable, perhaps symbolic, property
for the primary purpose of cementing the bonds of men with
men." (Gayle Rubin)
• Motif in English literature
Example: Shakespeare's Sonnets
Sedgwick's Examples
in Between Men
The Country Wife (1675)
cuckoldry, games between men
Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
gothic paranoia
Princess - Tennyson (1847)
conflicts of men
Our Mutual Friend - Dickens (1864)
ties to homophobia and misogyny
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe