Queer Theory in Transit: Reception, Translation, and Production of Queer Theory in Polish and German Contexts

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Eveline Kilian
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 504643526

Queer Theory in Transit is dedicated to queer theory in the humanities, with an emphasis on cultural and literary studies. Since the 1990s, critiques of heteronormativity and queer theory production in the US have been instrumental in forming and formulating queer theoretical approaches in various academic disciplines in Europe to a point that locally produced concepts and antecedents were often ignored. This project focuses on Polish and German translations and receptions of, as well as contributions to queer theory. It addresses and makes productive the tension between the origins of this body of theory in US-American academia and its subsequent reception, adaptation and appropriation in very different geographical, political and cultural contexts. It takes the example of Poland and Germany to trace and compare the key processes of adoption, modification and resistance governed by the historical specificities in these two countries. This includes a closer inspection of the ways US-American perspectives and knowledge production have been linked to and integrated in local theoretical traditions and how they have affected the ongoing local production of queer theory as it emerges in response to local discussions and issues. This research set-up will firstly allow us to stress interconnections and divergences between these two European countries and, secondly, to develop a critical perspective on US-American cultural hegemony that historically has been viewed very differently in Poland and Germany and that in recent times has more generally become a debated issue with changing political landscapes in Europe and in a more global framework. The project calls on Edward Said’s discussion of traveling theory, which strongly emphasizes the importance of local contexts in formulating and applying theoretical concepts. Germany and Poland have had a robust exchange in the realm of queer theory for almost two decades, holding joint conferences and issuing publications since the early 2000s. And this intercultural and academic dialogue extends much further into the past if queer theory is understood to include critical and literary antecedents that date back to Modernism and beyond (e.g. in the area of sexology). Since the formulation of queer theory as a field in the late 1980s and its transit to Germany and to Poland in the 1990s and 2000s, it has become possible to identify those antecedents in the light of current theoretical formulations. Moreover, the rapid uptake of queer theory in the two countries invites a comparative analysis of the translations and local work in the field. Queer Theory in Transit will contribute to the ongoing debate about knowledge production in a globalizing context and critically examine the dominance of cultural concepts emanating from the US.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Tomasz Basiuk