Questioning Sexuality

From Psychoanalysis to Gender Theory and Beyond

Rae, Gavin

Argues for a rethinking of sexuality as a constellation, rather than substantive identity
Identifies the dominant historical approach to sexuality in Western philosophy
Undertakes a detailed analysis of the various ways in which psychoanalytic, phenomenological, and feminist and gender theory and new materialisms have criticised the historically dominant model
Looks to the early thought of Walter Benjamin to develop a new interpretation of sexuality as constellation
Western thinking on sexuality has historically affirmed not only a binary division between two sexes, each of which is defined by unique fixed attributes that delineate its essence, but also a privileging of the masculine over the feminine and heteronormative relations over alternatives. By engaging with psychoanalytic theory, phenomenology, feminist and gender theory, and the new materialisms, Gavin Rae shows how this model came under sustained and heterogeneous attack in the twentieth century. Rather than affirm one of these critical trajectories, Rae rethinks the problematic by turning to Walter Benjamin’s notion of concepts as constellations to develop an alternative model called sexuality as constellation.