Indifference to Difference On Queer Universalism
Indifference to Difference On Queer Universalism by Madhavi Menon, published by University of Minnesota Press in 2015, presents a thought-provoking exploration of identity and desire. This 145-page work engages with Alain Badiou’s proposition regarding the politics of indifference to difference, suggesting that a new form of universalism can emerge from recognizing our shared experiences of powerlessness in the face of desire. Menon argues that rather than focusing on identity, we should consider how our desires shape our understanding of queerness.
Readers will find a critical examination of the intersections between desire, identity, and queerness throughout this book. Menon delves into the implications of embracing indifference as a means to resist traditional notions of identity, ultimately positioning queerness as a condition that transcends ownership of desire. By navigating the complexities of sameness and difference, this work contributes to discussions in literary criticism, LGBTQ studies, and philosophy, inviting readers to reconsider the frameworks through which they understand identity and desire.
Official synopsis Publisher
Indifference to Difference organizes around Alain Badiou’s suggestion that, in the face of increasing claims of identitarian specificity, one might consider the politics and practice of being indifferent to difference. Such a politics would be based on the superabundance of desire and its inability to settle into identity. Madhavi Menon shows that if we turn to another kind of universalism–not one that insists we are all different but one that recognizes we are all similar in our powerlessness to contain desire–then difference no longer becomes the focus of our identity.
Instead, we enter the worlds of desire. Following up on ideas of sameness and difference that have animated queer theory, Menon argues that what is most queer about indifference is not that it gives us queerness as an identity but that it is able to change queerness into a resistance of ontology. Firmly committed to the detours of desire, queer universalism evades identity.
This polemical book demonstrates that queerness is the condition within which we labor. Our desires are not ours to be owned; they are indifferent to our differences.
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