Political Ontology of the Closet: Elite Minorities and Sectarian Majorities in the Wilhemine Empire

When: Thursday, April 30, 12:30-1:45 pm

Where: 2125 Rolfe Hall

This talk develops a political ontology of minority articulation by examining divisions within the 19th century homosexual movement under conditions of repression. Sedgwick’s analysis of this movement emphasized the epistemological impasse between minoritizing and universalizing discourses of sexuality.

This talk shifts the focus from epistemology to political ontology.

Drawing on historical reconstruction and critical discourse analysis, the talk examines divisions within the German homosexual movement by focusing on the political thought and activism of Benedict Friedlaender, who attempted to mobilize a political field linking SPD revisionists, extra-parliamentary socialist critics, and left liberals in opposition to his main rival Hirschfeld’s SPD-loyal reform strategy. Friedlaender’s interventions demonstrate how competing sexual epistemologies reflected movement cleavages and contending strategies of minority and majority building. In this context, the talk develops a theory of political articulation by analyzing the relationship between party politics, social movement fragmentation, and coalition