Queer—Genealogy of a troublemaking term

Abstract

Jagoses’s introduction to queer theory presents primarily a genealogy of the term ‘queer’. Ranging from the historical context of homophile movements and gay-liberation movements to lesbian feminism in the United States Jagose investigates the conditions which have produced Queer Theory and traces the continuities and discontinuities of the semiotic history of the term ‘queer’. She discusses the poststructural roots of queer theory and discusses the emancipatory potential of its theoretical and political aspects. An extensive epilogue with notes on the reception of Queer Theory in the FRG has been added to the German edition.