In this groundbreaking work, Sara Ahmed demonstrates how queer studies can put p
henomenology to productive use. Focusing on the "orientation" aspect of "sexual
orientation" and the "orient" in "orientalism," Ahmed examines what it means for
bodies to be situated in space and time. Bodies take shape as they move through
the world directing themselves toward or away from objects and others. Being "o
rientated" means feeling at home, knowing where one stands, or having certain ob
jects within reach. Orientations affect what is proximate to the body or what ca
n be reached. A queer phenomenology, Ahmed contends, reveals how social relation
s are arranged spatially, how queerness disrupts and reorders these relations by
not following the accepted paths, and how a politics of disorientation puts oth
er objects within reach, those that might, at first glance, seem awry.
Ahmed pr
oposes that a queer phenomenology might investigate not only how the concept of
orientation is informed by phenomenology but also the orientation of phenomenolo
gy itself. Thus she reflects on the significance of the objects that appear--and
those that do not--as signs of orientation in classic phenomenological texts su
ch as Husserl's "Ideas." In developing a queer model of orientations, she combin
es readings of phenomenological texts--by Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and
Fanon--with insights drawn from queer studies, feminist theory, critical race t
heory, Marxism, and psychoanalysis. "Queer Phenomenology "points queer theory in
bold new directions.
