Queer Bonds

The field of queer studies has inherited a rich legacy of thinking about the relation of sex to the social, and indeed the theorization of that relation forms one of its constitutive points of orientation. From the 1970s through the 1990s and beyond, many of the foundational texts of the field have taken one of two approaches to the question of this relation, either stressing the creative possibilities for sociability opened up by queer sexual practices and identities, or taking “queerness” to name a corrosive force of social de-formation. These two approaches have recently polarized as opposed camps in a debate over the so-called “antisocial thesis in queer theory.” This collection asks what queer bonds obtain where the two trajectories intersect: what forms of sociability emerge across the gaps in or negation of the social-symbolic order? How do we characterize the bonds that form and deform social life and make that life go on? It includes major interventions into recent debates, and new paradigms for thought, from both founding figures in the field of queer studies and mid- and early career scholars who collectively pursue these queer bonds in relation to questions of race, colonialism, intellectual community, and the limits of humanism. What emerges is a sexuality that is not always recognizable as such, and a sociality that is sometimes forged across a gulf of recognition. Collectively, they suggest powerful new directions for queer studies and demonstrate the ongoing, crucial importance of queer approaches to social theory.