When Jagose published *Queer Theory: An Introduction* in 1996, ‘queer’ was still freshly reclaimed from slur status. The word hadn’t yet settled into academic routine. The field was generating more argument than clarity.
Her book arrived at the precise moment it was needed: lucid, historically anchored, written for people who wanted to understand what queer theory actually was instead of just hearing the noise around it.
The core argument refuses to treat queer theory as simply gay and lesbian studies with a new label. It’s more fundamental than that. Queer theory challenges the assumption that sexual categories—straight, gay, even the distinction between them—are stable or fixed. It extends that instability outward: gender, identity, sexuality, all the categories that feel like they describe something solid. All of them questionable.
Jagose traces this challenge across a century of same-sex history and thought. She draws on Butler, Halperin, others—the theorists doing the actual work—without disappearing into jargon. The ideas stay visible. The argument stays followable.
Nearly three decades later it’s still the book. The one people are handed first when they want to actually understand the field instead of just arguing about it. It remains the standard introduction because Jagose refused to simplify the ideas while keeping them accessible. That’s harder than it sounds.
Details
| ISBN: 9783896560629 |
| Subtitle: |
| Genre: LGBT Studies/Social Sciences |
| Subject(s): |
| Publication Date: 2001-02-28 |
| Original Publication Date: |
| Publisher: Quer Verlag GmbH |
| Language: German |
| Format: Paperback |
| Pages: 192 |
| Rating: |
| Notes: Annamarie Jagose was born in Ashburton, New Zealand, and has a Wikipedia entry reflecting her standing as one of the foundational figures in queer theory. She is currently Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. This edition is the German translation, published by Quer Verlag, the German-language specialist LGBTQ publisher. The original English text was published by Melbourne University Press in 1996 and remains in print. |
| Book_ID: 106026 |