Queer roots for the diaspora : ghosts in the family tree / Jarrod Hayes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hayes, Jarrod, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sexual minorities--Africa.

Sexual minorities.

African American sexual minorities.

African diaspora.

Family secrets--Africa.

Family secrets.

Family secrets--United States.

Gender identity--Africa.

Gender identity.

Gender identity--United States.

United States.

Africa.

African American LGBTQ+ people.

LGBTQ+ people.

Physical Description:

x, 325 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2016.

Summary:

As a way of understanding identity, the concept of rootedness hasincreasingly been subjected to acerbic political and theoretical critiques.Politically, roots narratives have been criticized for attempting to policeidentity through a politics of purity-excluding anyone who doesn't sharethe same narrative. Theoretically, a critique of essentialism has led toa suspicion against essence and origins regardless of their politicalimplications. The central argument of Queer Roots for the Diaspora is that, in spiteof these debates around the concept of roots, ultimately the desire forroots contains the "roots" of its own deconstruction. The book considersalternative root narratives that acknowledge the impossibility of returningto origins with any certainty; welcome sexual diversity; acknowledge theirown fictionality; reveal that even a single collective identity can be rootedin multiple ways; and create family trees haunted by the queer otherspatrilineal genealogy seems to marginalize. The roots narratives simultaneously assert and question rooted identitieswithin a number of diasporas-African, Jewish, and Armenian.

Contents:

Introduction

Looking for roots among the mangroves

Queer roots in Africa

Scandals and lies : the truth about roots

From roots that uproot to queer diasporas

The seduction of roots and the roots of seduction

Booger hollar and other queer sites : ghosts in the family tree

Notes

Works cited

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-320) and index.

ISBN:

9780472053162

0472053167

9780472073160

0472073168

OCLC:

951753874