Abstract
In this article, I suggest Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts challenges “epistemic habits” in contemporary critical thought on gender, politics, sexuality, intimacy, identity, and love. In particular, I focus on how Nelson through descriptions of queer life, love, and kinship articulates moral-existential and queer-philosophical perspectives on everyday life by bringing the “I-You” relationship to the fore of feminist and queer theoretical concerns. By reading Nelson with the philosophy of Wittgenstein, I discuss how love is related to views on language and what it means to say that one can have, as well as lack a faith in words, other people and linguistic meaning. The Argonauts, I argue, shows us the importance of acknowledging moral-existential perspectives of gender and identity and their role in I-You relations. The article raises questions of how to understand the relationship between theory, philosophy, and ordinary language in relation to cultural critique and criticism (Butler 1990; Sedgwick 2003). It also discusses love as a perspective one might take and have in life and to other people in general, not exclusively as romantic love, but as a philosophical perspective in thinking about gender, identity, politics, love, and intimacy.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 360-376 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Policy Futures in Education |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2022 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- epistemic habits
- love
- maggie nelson
- performativity
- queer feminist criticism
- the argonauts
- wittgenstein
- 611 Philosophy