페미니즘과 퀴어이론, 차이와 공존: 테레사 드 로레티스, 이브 세지윅, 주디스 버틀러를 중심으로

Abstract

This essay is an effort to critique the theoretical transition from feminism to queer theory and to examine overlapping as well as conflicting interests. The operative logic of this study is that feminism and queer theory are not mutually exclusive sets of ideas and practices. I attempt to show how queer theory marginalizes feminism in significant ways, even though it originated from a theoretical attempt to augment and improve feminist ideals, which is why the linkages and divergences between feminism and queer theory need to be critically reassessed. For this purpose, I focus on three prominent thinkers /writers whose works traverse the overlapping and yet divided fields of feminism, gender studies and queer theory: Teresa de Lauretis, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Judith Butler. Scrutinizing works by de Lauretis, Sedgwick, and Butler, I believe, will enable us to understand the ways in which gender studies and queer theory evolve from feminism. Queer theory largely comes from gay and lesbian studies, as part of gender studies; however, queer theory diverges from gay and lesbian studies, by turning “queer” into a cultural metaphor that vaguely defines itself against any normative discourses or practices. By closely examining the major arguments and theoretical positions of the three critics, I flesh out problems in shifting the central binary terms from “masculine vs. feminine,” through “heterosexual vs. homosexual” finally to “queer and heteronormative.” With this critical review of such differing yet by no means mutually exclusive positions, I hope to rediscover and redefine the ground upon which they can productively cooperate.