Trap door : trans cultural production and the politics of visibility / edited by Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Tourmaline, editor.

Stanley, Eric A., editor.

Burton, Johanna, editor.

Martin and Margy Meyerson Endowment Fund for the Built Environment.

Series:

Critical anthologies in art and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gender identity in art.

Trans people in art.

Transgender people in art.

Trans people in popular culture.

Transgender people in popular culture.

SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBT Studies / General.

ART / Criticism & Theory.

ART / Art & Politics.

Local Subjects:

SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBT Studies / General.

ART / Criticism & Theory.

ART / Art & Politics.

Physical Description:

xxvi, 419 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2017]

Summary:

The increasing representation of trans identity throughout art and popular culture in recent years has been nothing if not paradoxical. Trans visibility is touted as a sign of a liberal society, but it has coincided with a political moment marked both by heightened violence against trans people (especially trans women of color) and by the suppression of trans rights under civil law. 'Trap Door' grapples with these contradictions. The essays, conversations, and dossiers gathered here delve into themes as wide-ranging yet interconnected as beauty, performativity, activism, and police brutality. Collectively, they attest to how trans people are frequently offered "doors"--Entrances to visibility and recognition -- that are actually "traps," accommodating trans bodies and communities only insofar as they cooperate with dominant norms. The volume speculates about a third term, perhaps uniquely suited for our time: the trapdoor, neither entrance nor exit, but a secret passageway leading elsewhere.

Contents:

Series preface / Johanna Burton

Director's foreword / Lisa Phillips

Known unknowns: an introduction to Trap door / Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley and Johanna Burton

The labor of werqing it: the performance and protest strategies of Sir Lady Java / Treva Ellison

Cautious living: black trans women and the politics of documentation / Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Cece McDonald in conversation with Toshio Meronek

Existing in the world: blackness at the edge of trans visibility / Che Gossett and Juliana Huxtable in conversation

Trans history in a moment of danger: organizing within and beyond "visibility" in the 1970s / Abram J. Lewis

Out of obscurity: trans resistance 1969-2016 / Grace Dunham

Introducing the Museum of Transgender Hirstory and Art / Chris E. Vargas

One from the vaults: gossip, access, and trans history-telling / Morgan M. Page

Everywhere archives: transgendering, trans Asians, and the Internet^^ ^ Mel Y. Chen

Dark shimmers: the rhythm of necropolitical affect in digital media / Micha Cárdenas

Blackness and the trouble of trans visibility / Che Gossett

Representation and its limits / Roundtable participants: Lexi Adsit, Sydney Freeland, Robert Hamblin, and Geo Wyeth; moderator: Tavia Nyong'o

The last extremists? / Heather Love

An affinity of hammers / Sara Ahmed

The guild of the brave poor things / Park McArthur and Constantina Zavitsanos

Spiderwomen / Eva Hayward

Proximity: on the work of Mark Aguhar / Roy Pérez

Dynamic static / Nicole Archer

Model of futurity / Roundtable participants: Kai Lumumba Barrow, Yve Laris Cohen, and Kalaniopua Young; moderator: Dan Spade

All terror, all beauty / Wu Tsang and Fred Moten in conversation

Canonical undoings: notes on trans art and archives / Stamatina Gregory and Jeanne Vaccaro

Contemporary art and critical transgender infrastructures^^ ^ Jeannine Tang.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Martin and Margy Meyerson Endowment Fund for the Built Environment.

ISBN:

9780262036603

0262036606

OCLC:

978286466