The Ethics of Opting Out: Queer Theory's Defiant Subjects - Hardcover

Ruti, Mari

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 023118090X ISBN 13: 9780231180900

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2017

Synopsis

In The Ethics of Opting Out, Mari Ruti provides an accessible yet theoretically rigorous account of the ideological divisions that have animated queer theory during the last decade, paying particular attention to the field's rejection of dominant neoliberal narratives of success, cheerfulness, and self-actualization. More specifically, she focuses on queer negativity in the work of Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, and Lynne Huffer, and on the rhetoric of bad feelings found in the work of Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, David Eng, Heather Love, and Jose Munoz. Ruti highlights the ways in which queer theory's desire to opt out of normative society rewrites ethical theory and practice in genuinely innovative ways at the same time as she resists turning antinormativity into a new norm. This wide-ranging and thoughtful book maps the parameters of contemporary queer theory in order to rethink the foundational assumptions of the field.

About this title

About the Author

Mari Ruti is professor of critical theory and of sexual diversity studies at the University of Toronto. She is the author of nine books, most recently Between Levinas and Lacan: Self, Other, Ethics (2015).

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 023118090X
• ISBN 13: 9780231180900
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264