Coming Out as Queen
Jewish Identity, Queer Theory, and theBook of Esther
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4577672 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shirly Bahar (New York University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 167-178 |
| Publication date | 2012-07-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Gender and Sexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1524-0657 • E-ISSN: 1940-9206 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15240657.2012.709134 |
| OpenAlex | W1975104353 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 6 |
Far from new, correlative and comparative conceptualizations of Jewish and queer studies go back to one of queer theory's first, and most influential, accounts: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet (1990 Sedgwick , E. ( 1990 ). Epistemology of the Closet . Berkeley : University of California Press . [Google Scholar]). This article revisits Sedgwick's comparison between the gay and the Jewess's acts of coming out to delicately destabilize her dichotomized differentiation of them. Unconditionally endorsing her condemnation of homophobia, I nevertheless shift my lens to center Esther's, rather than gay men's, narrated experience at the heart of the article. Closely and carefully examining Esther's utterances and performances throughout the entire Book of Esther to trace a multifaceted understanding of her fictionalized figure, I conflate Sedgwick's narration of Esther with more elaborate examinations of Esther's literary construction. Capturing Esther's fluid textuality, I contest the very assumption that one's coming out as queer—within cultural as well as sexuality discourses—indicates her intention to define and/or confine herself along strict, systematic, and/or static taxonomies
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Closet · Heteronormativity · Human sexuality · Judaism · Literature · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Textuality · Theology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Development, Ethics, and Society · Gender Studies · History · Philosophy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2021 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |