Divine Queer Sorrow, or Beyond Mythical Reparations

Bibliographic Data

ID21665670
AuthorsIan L Tian (0000-0002-5403-034X, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume46
Pages260-279
Publication date2023-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTOPIA Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1206-0143 • E-ISSN: 1916-0194
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/topia-2022-0007
OpenAlexW4367850078
LanguageEN
References cited27

This article focuses on the culture and politics of apology for injustice against LGBTQ+ people in the context of Anglo-European, liberal democratic nation-states. I examine the circumstances and limits of Justin Trudeau’s apology for the gay purge and related initiatives since November 2017. I contend that while the normative affective structure of liberal apology mandates a move from mythical homo sorrow to mythical reparation, jettisoned affects, experiences and activism from below exceed the state’s directive for reparation and forgetting. I name such excesses divine queer sorrow. More specifically, I trace the remaindered and peripheral affect of testimonies and activism to think about not only a queer affective structure of forgiveness but also a transformative future stemming from activist sensibilities

Aesthetics · Art · Democracy · Forgiveness · Injustice · Literature · Political science · Politics · Queer · Sociology · Sorrow · Feminism, Gender, and Intersectionality · Gender Studies · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · History · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy

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