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Music and Queer Theory

Posted: September 20th, 2011 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

Call for contributions – Transposition. Musique et sciences sociales nº 3

(http://transposition-revue.org)

Queer theory is likely one of the most well-known and controversial recent schools of thought, and its impact has been felt in the academic world and beyond. It appeared in the early 1990s in the United States, as a direct offshoot of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) collectives, the work of Foucault (in particular, his History of Sexuality and ideas such as “biopolitics”), and Derrida’s deconstructionism. This school of thought, while in no way a homogenous trend, is characterized by the questioning of the notion of gender and the idea that sexual identity and behaviour would be genetically determined. In this context, queer theory formulates the hypothesis that sexuality is actually a social construction. This presumes that sexuality is not biologically stamped on human nature, but rather takes on ever-changing social forms, wherein a given individual can live out one or many sexual identities. This hypothesis leads us to call into question social classifications from the fields of traditional psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology, which tend to look at one measure at a time for classifying individuals (class, gender, etc.).

Musicology has also fallen under the influence of queer theory, what with the research groups, books, articles, and dissertations that address previously unexplored or even taboo issues, such as the construction of sexual identity through or in music. From a methodological perspective, this school of thought has been part of the recent theoretical renewal at an international level, wherein “traditional” methods of musical analysis and historical musicology are used in concert with historical, sociological, literary, aesthetic, anthropological, and socio-geographical techniques. This allows the researcher to apprehend the construction process of the musical “object” and its social dimension in all its complexity.

This issue of Transposition. Musique et sciences sociales aims to bolster this theoretical overhaul, through articles and case studies which explore ideas from queer theory in music of any genre. We also welcome more theoretical texts which examine the contributions or limitations of this school of thought in the field of musicology.

Submission

Papers (in French or in English), which conform to the requirements of the publication (http://transposition-revue.org/spip.php?rubrique4&lang=en), should be addressed to the editing committee before the 31st March 2012 at this address: [email protected]



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