Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (Sexual Cultures) - Hardcover

Muñoz, José Esteban

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814757278 ISBN 13: 9780814757277

Publisher: NYU Press, 2009

Synopsis

The LGBT agenda for too long has been dominated by pragmatic issues like same-sex marriage and gays in the military. It has been stifled by this myopic focus on the present, which is short-sighted and assimilationist. "Cruising Utopia" seeks to break the present stagnancy by cruising ahead. Drawing on the work of Ernest Bloch, Jose Esteban Munoz recalls the queer past for guidance in presaging its future. He considers the work of seminal artists and writers such as Andy Warhol, LeRoi Jones, Frank O'Hara, Ray Johnson, Fred Herko, Samuel Delany, and Elizabeth Bishop, alongside contemporary performance and visual artists like Dynasty Handbag, My Barbarian, Luke Dowd, Tony Just, and Kevin McCarty in order to decipher the anticipatory illumination of art and its uncanny ability to open windows to the future. In a startling repudiation of what the LGBT movement has held dear, Munoz contends that queerness is instead a futurity bound phenomenon, a 'not yet here' that critically engages pragmatic presentism. Part manifesto, part love-letter to the past and the future, "Cruising Utopia" argues that the here and now are not enough and issues an urgent call for the revivification of the queer political imagination.

About this title

Review:

"Munoz draws on a dynamic roster of seminal artists to illustrate his vision of a utopian queer future... Queer theorists will find the book's provocative thesis stimulating." --Publisher's Weekly, 28th Sept 2009

"Munoz takes Ernst Bloch as his Virgil as he descends into the dark woods of futurity looking for signposts along the way that will guide him to a place of hope, belonging, queerness and quirkiness. Refusing to simply sign on to the 'anti-relational', anti-future brand of queer theory espoused by Edelman, Bersani and others, Munoz insists that for some queers, particularly for queers of color, hope is something one cannot afford to lose and for them giving up on futurity is not an option."- --Judith Halberstam, author of In a Queer Time and Place

"Brilliant, extraordinary, and necessary, Munoz's critical refusal of queer pragmatism, his commitment to the utopian force of the radical attempt - the radical aesthetic, erotic, and philosophical experiment - is indispensable in an historical moment characterized by political surrender and intellectual timidity passing itself off as boldness." --Fred Moten, author of In the Break

About the Author:

José Esteban Muñoz was Professor and past Chair of Performance Studies at New York University. He is the author of Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics and co-editor of Pop Out: Culture and Dance in Latin/o America and Everynight Life: Queer Warhol.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0814757278
• ISBN 13: 9780814757277
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 234