Queer Frameworks and Queer Tendencies: Towards an Understanding of Postmodern Transformations of Sexuality

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Abstract
This article aims to extend the theorization of postmodernity to consider social changes in the realm of sexuality. It offers a discussion of recent developments in queer theory, which, it is argued, can contribute significant new theoretical frameworks for the analysis of sexuality. It then traces some of the shifts in the organization of sexuality in the second half of the twentieth century, the emergence of modern sexual identities, and the changing relationships between ‘the homosexual’ and ‘the heterosexual’, as categories, identities and ways of life. The article then outlines what are conceptualized as the ‘queer tendencies’ of postmodernity, which it is suggested characterize the contemporary re-organization of relations of sexuality. These queer tendencies are: queer auto-critique, the decentring of heterorelations, the emergence of hetero-reflexivity, and the cultural valorizing of the queer.

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