Can the Eastern Other Speak for Herself? Theorising Eastern European Sexualities... (original) (raw)

Abstract

So far, a significant amount of academic literature about sexuality is about Western (Anglo-American) context, or has been written from (and for) this perspective. Even when considering a recent shift in queer studies to embrace margins and outskirts, de-centring politics of geo-location - the growing literature about "non-Western" cultures continues its investment in the post-colonial regions of Asia or Africa. Still, there is noticeably less work done about the West's "neighbouring" countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). By focusing on CEE we would like to pluralize and problematize the notion of "Western"/"non-Western" sexualities. We aim to critically assess the current state of knowledge about sexualities "outside" the all-pervasive framings of the "West"; and yet still, because they are "inside", we will focus on their expressions in the "nearby" and still underexplored region of Central and Eastern Europe. The focus of our presentation will be on the possibilities of theorizing sexualities in CEE. So far, many articles showed how "West" produces "East" as its other. We have also shown how "East" subjectivises/objectivises "West", and legitimizes it through accepting and contributing (but also and profiting at times) to these processes of Othering. In Stockholm, we would like to take this discussion further and question both practices, asking: What could it mean to do queer/non-normative activism in CEE context? We want to move beyond first step recognition of local differences and incompatibility of Anglo-American models to CEE realities. Therefore we will look at CEE examples and try to bring them together in normative theoretical attempt at building the meaning of "queer" practices outside Western/inside European contexts.

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