Historicism and Unhistoricism in Queer Studies

Author(s): Carla Freccero, Madhavi Menon and Valerie Traub

Source: PMLA , May 2013, Vol. 128, No. 3 (May 2013), pp. 781-786
Published by: Modern Language Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23489323

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 12 8.3 Forum 781

the in print as a "future dead

spring person" ("Theorizing
2013 iss
voted Queer Temporalities:
to ecology A Roundtable Discussion" on
I take the
[Queer occasio
Temporalities; ed. Elizabeth Freeman;
statement of the relevance of the environment spec, issue of GLQ 13.2-3 (2007): 177-95; print;
to literature and the arts before turning to my 184]). "A teleological perspective views the pres
own reflections on "ecocriticism at twenty-five." ent as a necessary outcome of the past," Traub
As Waage intimates, putative landmark dates writes, though this perspective may equally
are merely convenient markers, less accurate comprehend the ends to which we are all tend
than they seem. All I had in mind by "twenty ing (21). Apocalypse is also a teleological model,
five" was to associate what we now think of as and perhaps when apocalyptic outcomes domi
an academic mainstreaming of ecocriticism nate the teleological discourse of the day, some
with the aftereffects of the 1991 MLA session, LGBTQ scholars feel moved to explore tempo
the establishment of ASLE and ISLE, and the rality's queerness, to find in time a way "out,"
influence of my and Glotfelty's The Ecocriticism or at least another way. This may well be how
Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. some of us "contend with the irreducible force

Harold Fromm
of time's movement on our bodies, our species,
Institute of the Environment and the planet," in part because the contending

University of Arizona, Tucson

goes hand in hand with an acute awareness of
our relative incapacities to do so (32).
Both mournful and celebratory queer
Historicism and Unhistoricism in twistings of time have been emerging from de
cades of mortality's untimely reign in LGBTQ
Queer Studies
communities. Some of these writings explore
To the Editor: the affective experience of temporality as recur
Valerie Traub's "The New Unhistoricism sive or even repetitive; some chart nostalgia's
in Queer Studies" (128.1 [2013]: 21-39) invokesbackward-looking melancholy; some trace tem
Marx's Communist Manifesto, but in her readporality's effects in and as the present; and some
ing it is not communism that haunts Europe celebrate the sheer queerness of nonprogressive
time. But all fashion ways of thinking about
but teleology that haunts queer studies. Per
how time—that strange measure of our mortal
haps, then, teleologists should openly, before the
lives—impresses itself upon us subjectively and
world, publish their views, their aims, their ten
collectively. This is to discuss a temporality that
dencies, and meet this nursery tale of the specter
of teleology with a manifesto of the party itself!is precisely not history, though history itself,
But rather than a manifesto in defense of either as "experienced" or as "narrated," has
varying phenomenal temporalities and is, as
teleology, what ensues is a complaint about the
degree to which antiteleologists purportedly well, subjective, insofar as there must be either
malign as unqueer those who periodize and hisa subject to experience or a narrator to narrate.
toricize. Traub denounces the antiteleologists' So, when Traub says that readings "are
not the same thing as history" (30), I agree,
critique as opposition to history itself, thus sug
gesting that history is teleology, period. and with acclaim, but add that history—in
sofar as "we" have access to it—presents itself
I am not an antiteleologist. I have a strong
as a reading. Fredric Jameson (historicist par
theory of teleology: I call it mortality. This is
how I practice what Traub calls an "enhanced excellence) writes, "History is not a text, for it
discernment of the ways our bodies remain in is fundamentally non-narrative and nonrep
resentational; what can be added, however, is
time" (36); indeed, I frequently refer to myself

©» 2013 CARLA
2013 CARLA FRECCERO
FRECCERO
PMLA 128.3 (2013), published by the Modera Language Association of America

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782 Forum PMLA

the proviso
relegates to the past the modalitiesthat
of same-sex
except desire that do not
in adhere to that model, while
textual
it can simultaneously
be homogenizing and globalizing
approac
textualization"
a "modern" homosexual identity. So what I was (T
rative as
offering was a
a critique Sociall
less of historicizing than
1981; print;
of promoting progressivist and 82]).
potentially Eu
I, who marks
rocentric models of historical change and iden hi
tity—not because they are historical,
playfulness of as Traub ph
famousasserts, but because they are ideological.
statemen
what refuses desi
Traub concludes, as she begins, by invoking
another specter, one as
individual who "bequeath[s]"
wel a copia
would and generates a legacy, and she that
seem worries that that
wants legacy will become diluted (36). Is this the spec
history to
play (no ter of the essay's opening paragraph, the one who
quarrel h
Let me take a moment to summarize for is both an insubstantial shade and a vision of the

readers what my argument actually was infuture? Is it the specter of Hamlet? And if time is
"Undoing the Histories of Homosexuality," the out of joint, must someone set it right? Traub's
chapter in Queer/Early/Modern that criticizes essay is itself, it seems to me, a work of mourn
David Halperin's How to Do the History of Ho ing enjoining readers to honor the past; it thus
mosexuality, because I believe it was respectful, has its own kind of queer temporality. But—or
careful, and historical—though not only historand—the queerest thing is that the storm keeps
ical, since I also take seriously the literariness blowing us backward... into the future.
or "counterfactual" status of texts we call fic
Carla Freccero
tion (Duke UP, 2006; print; 31-50). My critique
University of California, Santa Cruz
involved a short story by Boccaccio that has
been richly analyzed by a number of younger
scholars, such as Susan Gaylard, in "The CriTo the Editor:
sis of Word and Deed in Decameron V 10" (The
In response to Valerie Traub's essay "The New
Italian Novella, ed. Gloria Allaire [Routledge,
Unhistoricism in Queer Studies," I would like to
2003; 33-48; print]), and Martin G. Eisner and
propose ten theses on queer (un)historicism:
Marc D. Schachter, in "Libido Sciendi: Apu
leius, Boccaccio, and the Study of the History of 1. With so much to learn from dialogue and
Sexuality" (PMLA 124.3 [2009]: 817-37; print). debate, with so much to be gained by tak
Whereas Halperin was using the text to deduce ing the challenges to both historicism and
a protohomosexual identity in fourteenth unhistoricism seriously, as Traub proposes
century Italy, I wanted to cast doubt on the to do, it is disappointing that her essay
empirical and historical status of a description remains so firmly entrenched in opposi
located in a text that flamboyantly showcases its tionality. Traub's work on the confluence of
counterfactual nature. I also extended Eve Ko psychoanalysis and historicism—two sup
sofsky Sedgwick's critique of an earlier work by posedly warring methodologies—has been
Halperin, primarily concerning not universal important for queer Renaissance work, so it
izing and minoritizing models but rather narra is particularly distressing to see camps be
tives of supersession: to taxonomize identities as ing created where none need exist.
pre- or protohomosexual presumes something 2. Positing unhistoricism as the opposite of
called "modern homosexuality" and potentially historicism merely repeats the binary logic

> 2013 MADHAVI MENON

PMLA 128.3 (2013), published by the Modern Language Association of America

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 2 8.3 J Forum 783

that has long plagued bot

and sexuality. Rather than
between the two, we need
ongoing theorization and cr
nant concepts is a necessar
enterprise. A dialectical un
of historicism is crucial, n
arriving at a synthesis but
pressure on fault lines tha
to gloss over. That the hist
ogy might resemble the ve
to critique, that its emphas
might elide the question of
its insistence on historical
make short work of incon
are the challenges of unh
3. By pushing against the e
aries that have been erecte
arly work, unhistoricism poi
larger stakes involved in w
queerness is to be not just a
but also a critical praxis, q
nant paradigms of method
the core of its work. spite its multiple uses—finds itself.
4. To see a critique of historicism judged in- 7. But wait a minute: we have been here be
valid because it is not historical enough is fore. To my mind what is most interesting
perplexing. To read that metaphor should and frustrating about Traub's essay is that
be ranked as the master trope above other it reenacts the debate between Eve Kosofsky
modes of analysis is disturbing. And to Sedgwick and David Halperin on this very
hear both that unhistoricism has nothing issue: whether or not historicism is useful
to teach historicism and that unhistori- for queer theory. Traub s dedication of her
cism's insights have already been antici- essay to Halperin only underscores this
pated by historicism is baffling. structural repetition. Even in defending
5. There is no one historicism just as there itself, then, historicism is haunted by the
is no one form of queerness. That is why a kind of nonlinear repetition that unhistori
critique of historicism has always dwelt on cism theorizes,
its dominant aspects, of which teleology is 8. Taking seriously the unsettling power
paramount. My work on queering teleology of repetition, unhistoricism recognizes
has been undertaken in conversation with something queer in interrupting the time
the work of a historian—Dipesh Chak- lines and teleologically bounded identities
rabarty—whose Provincializing Europe of historicism. Here it takes as its cue Lee
critiques historicism for separating the not Edelman's position that queerness "can
yets from the here alreadys. The not yets never define an identity; it can only ever
are teleologically condemned to the wait- disturb one" (qtd. in Traub 33).
ing room of history while the here alreadys 9. History is not always historicist. And
are allowed full identity and presence. This queerness can never fully be known. Thus,
trend of teleological hierarchization runs when Traub notes that despite "areas of

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784 Forum PMLA

agreement, I remain
teleological imperat
understanding of pas
it exactly wrong (27
been to arrive at a
of either sexuality o
cism's critique lies in
knowledge can neve
that full disclosure i
tasmic nature is forg
10. Especially when th
need a critique of t
back to the dominan
Such a critique not
freighted hierarch
ideas that fuel much
world today but also
not, and never can b
peoples, ideas regis
backward, crawl fo
selves. We need an (
ology that is fluid e
queer cornucop
Madhavi
Madhavi Menon Menon
American
American University Unive
ment with t
Since Meno
Reply:
Reply: unhistoricism as disappointingly "entrenched
I am grateful to have the opportunity for oppositionality, it migh
further dialogue with Carla Freccero and Mad- cate t'le areas in which
havi Menon on issues raised in my essay on the addition to the items explic
new unhistoricism. saY (27), as well as my appreciative description
Carla Freccero is right: my essay is not a °f aspects of their work (29-30), my analysis
defense of teleology—nor was it intended to articulates considerable sympathy with queer
be. The specter of teleology I invoke is one that explorations of temporality that seek, as Frec
haunts the pages of her work, as well as that cer° puts it, to find in time a way out, or at
of Madhavi Menon—a specter that, I argue, is least another way.' The mournful and celebra
conjured to enjoin compliance with a particu- tory queer twistings of time" in recent scholar
lar mode of queering temporality. "Teleology" ship that she enumerates represent, to my mind,
in their work is an accusation that anchors important collective developments (22, 26), in
their assertions of antinormativity; it is not which I would include her own deconstructive
a method of history writing I champion but and psychoanalytic "spectral... historiogra
rather a fulcrum I use to analyze their claims. phy" (28). Freccero and I concur that "history
Because those claims have been heralded as a itself" has "varying phenomenal temporalities,"
new method, I tried to unpack the various log- that history "presents itself as a reading," and

©> 2013
2013 VALERIE
VALERIE TRAUB
TRAUB
PMLA 128.3 (2013), published by the Modern Language Association of America

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 12 8.3 J Forum 785

that the "work of mourning"

form of "queer temporality." M
that "full disclosure" of the pas
ality "is a fantasy" (indeed, this p
the premise of my forthcoming
more, my essay was motivated
in Menons words, that queerne
praxis" and that the "ongoing the
critique of dominant concepts i
tellectual enterprise." courses of sexuality, whether in the past or in
One source of impasse, however, is a dis- the present. Nor would many commit to writ
inclination to credit unhistoricism's own as- ing a teleological history, in which one model
cendance to its dominance in queer studies. of identity seamlessly supersedes the next. The
Unhistoricism does not possess the duration or point is not to "reenact" this debate but to take
institutional power of prior regimes of critical stock of where it has brought us and where we
practice in the profession at large, but its rapid might go, as I begin to do in "The Present Fu
uptake as the new queer common sense has en- ture of Lesbian Historiography" (A Companion
gendered its own ideological enforcements. And to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and
so, in the spirit of "ongoing theorization and cri- Queer Studies, ed. George Haggerty and Molly
tique," as well as out of a genuine desire for col- McGarry [Blackwell, 2007; 124-45; print]),
lective critical dialogue, I want to identify, in as This misapprehension of what is at stake
neutral language as possible, remaining areas of may arise, at least in part, from the dedication
substantive disagreement. These concern, in the of my essay to the scholar whose work I felt had
first instance, the knotty problem of how to ne- been, above others, misrepresented as teleologi
gotiate the conceptual and methodological ten- cal in the authors' work. Although the substan
sions between the projects of queering time and tive differences between Sedgwick and Halperin
writing history. This negotiation involves some are no longer at issue—which is why my essay
difficult methodological decisions; whether and positions them as part of the pre history of our
how to balance the claims of historical simili- current concerns—what may still be relevant
tude and alterity when engaging with the past, is the productive model of queer critique they
whether and how to use psychoanalysis and represent. If, as Freccero (echoing Benjamin)
deconstruction to enable diachronic under- concludes, the storm of temporality keeps blow
standings across time, and whether and how se- ing us "backward ... into the future," we might
quence and chronology might have any utility locate in that prior engagement the capacity
for queer studies. Beyond these historiographie to move forward. Freccero's clarification that
issues, at stake more broadly are the role of em- her aim is "to discuss a temporality that is pre
pirical inquiry in queer studies, the adequacy of cisely not history" is one step in that direction
homo and hetero as descriptors of incommen- (although it leaves intact her claims regarding
surate phenomena, the tension between identity history's inevitably problematic mode of knowl
and nonidentity in contemporary understand- edge production). Menon's recognition that
ings of queerness, and the purposes, politics, "[t]here is no one historicism just as there is no
and intended outcomes of queering. I hope that one form of queerness" is another. Such asser
these topics will be subject to others' elabora- tions may herald the possibility of further con
tion and assessment. structive dialogue regarding the specific work
One further point of dispute emerges of "history," "historicism," and "queerness," as
from their letters. Both Freccero (implicitly) well as about, as my essay put it, "the unique af
and Menon (explicitly) frame our differences fordances of different methods for negotiating

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786 Forum PMLA

the Perhaps my faultfinding

complex linksis merely over
and history maki
compensation, but, all the same: in the essay,
the Swedish word kommisarie is misspelled;
Valerie Traub
the correct spelling is kommissarie, as evi
University of M
denced in the Swedish Academy's dictionary,
known as the SAOB ("Kommissarie"; Svenska
Akademiens ordbook; Svenska Akademien,
Sweden's OED
n.d.; Web; 21 May 2013). Once completed, the
To the Editor:
SAOB will rival the OED (forgive my jingoism,
I was delighted—nay, transfixed with pa
obviously impervious to Lindqvist's crystal
triotic elation—when I saw Ursula Lindqvist's
line logic).
essay "Majors and Minors in Europe's African
I was, incidentally, fortunate enough to
Enterprise: Oyono's Une vie de boy in Danish
make a study visit to the Nordic Africa Insti
and Swedish Translations"^ the Januarytute 2013
(NAI) while earning my master's degree in
issue of PMLA (128.1 [2013]: 149-55). However,
library and information science. The NAI will
my sense of jingoism diminished considerably,
never be quite the same for me since reading
in a masochistically pleasurable, Coetzeean
Lindqvist's essay.
fashion, as I plumbed the depths of Lindqvist's
eerily exhilarating exposé of Sweden's implica Mattias Nystrôm
tion in the European colonial enterprise. Uppsala

' 2013 MATTIAS NYSTROM

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