In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives

J. Jack Halberstam

Published by New York University Press 2005

In a Queer Time and Place

Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives

J. Jack Halberstam

Volume 3 in the series Sexual Cultures

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814790892.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first full-length study of transgender representations in art, fiction, film, video, and music

In her first book since the critically acclaimed Female Masculinity, Judith Halberstam examines the significance of the transgender body in a provocative collection of essays on queer time and space. She presents a series of case studies focused on the meanings of masculinity in its dominant and alternative forms’ especially female and trans-masculinities as they exist within subcultures, and are appropriated within mainstream culture.

In a Queer Time and Place opens with a probing analysis of the life and death of Brandon Teena, a young transgender man who was brutally murdered in small-town Nebraska. After looking at mainstream representations of the transgender body as exhibited in the media frenzy surrounding this highly visible case and the Oscar-winning film based on Brandon's story, Boys Don’t Cry, Halberstam turns her attention to the cultural and artistic production of queers themselves. She examines the “transgender gaze,” as rendered in small art-house films like By Hook or By Crook, as well as figurations of ambiguous embodiment in the art of Del LaGrace Volcano, Jenny Saville, Eva Hesse, Shirin Neshat, and others. She then exposes the influence of lesbian drag king cultures upon hetero-male comic films, such as Austin Powers and The Full Monty, and, finally, points to dyke subcultures as one site for the development of queer counterpublics and queer temporalities.

Considering the sudden visibility of the transgender body in the early twenty-first century against the backdrop of changing conceptions of space and time, In a Queer Time and Place is the first full-length study of transgender representations in art, fiction, film, video, and music. This pioneering book offers both a jumping off point for future analysis of transgenderism and an important new way to understand cultural constructions of time and place.

Author / Editor information

Halberstam J. Jack :

J. Jack Halberstam is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Halberstam is the author of In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, Female Masculinity and co-author with Del LaGrace Volcano of The Drag King Book.

Reviews

Lisa Duggan,author of Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy:
Halberstams marvelous new book combines fierce argumentation, vivid description, astute as well as hilarious commentary. The author not only provides a powerful critique of common defenses and dismissals of 'postmodernism,' but offers a redefinition of & identity politics for the new millennium as well.

JD Samson,from the band Le Tigre:
An extremely honest and provocative book. Judith Halberstams In A Queer Time and Place both validates and admires the beauty of the transperson as well as the genderqueer in this new era of identity performance. It is an incredible portrayal of the partnership between trans issues and gay and lesbian issues that I applaud with a full heart.

The wide-ranging scope of (Halberstams) work both serves to make her book accessible to many kinds of readers as well as to show the wide scope in which her argument registers. This makes her book a joy to read. Similarly, her wit and ability to capture large theoretical terms in rich and layered (and funny!) images contributes to the pleasure of this book of & theory.

Halberstams text is academically important, critiquing identity politics and examining uncommon but essential transgender representations in art, film, and society

This small seductive book pours warmth as Halberstam confesses and connects movements of pop culture and high art to a deeper understanding of the potentials of the body. She includes us in her world and its privileged understanding of her subject....In a Queer Time displays Halberstams sophisticated understanding of contemporary culture in a plain and engaging tone.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
1 Queer Temporality and Postmodern Geographies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 The Brandon Archive Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
3 Unlosing Brandon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
4 The Transgender Look Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
5 Technotopias Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
6 Oh Behave! Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
7 What’s That Smell? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: January 1, 2005
ISBN: 9780814790892