Opacity and the Closet: Queer Tactics in Foucault, Barthes, and Warhol

by Nicholas de Villiers

Opacity and the Closet interrogates the viability of the metaphor of “the closet” when applied to three important queer figures in postwar American and French the philosopher Michel Foucault, the literary critic Roland Barthes, and the pop artist Andy Warhol. Nicholas de Villiers proposes a new approach to these cultural icons that accounts for the queerness of their works and public personas. Rather than reading their self-presentations as “closeted,” de Villiers suggests that they invent and deploy productive strategies of “opacity” that resist the closet and the confessional discourse associated with it. Deconstructing binaries linked with the closet that have continued to influence both gay and straight receptions of these intellectual and pop celebrities, de Villiers illuminates the philosophical implications of this displacement for queer theory and introduces new ways to think about the space they make for queerness. Using the works of Foucault, Barthes, and Warhol to engage each other while exploring their shared historical context, de Villiers also shows their queer appropriations of the interview, the autobiography, the diary, and the documentary—forms typically linked to truth telling and authenticity.

Genres: Queer, Theory

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2012

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

For scholar Nicholas de Villiers, the closet is a hegemonic metaphor, indicative of a binary built into (queer) culture and theory more specifically in which the queer subject is either in the closet or out of it. Yet, as most members of the LGBTQ+ community are aware, this opposition is flawed. For some, coming out is a process, taking place daily; for others, the closet was never there to begin with; and for others still, there is nothing but the closet. As such, the binary opposition of being in/out of the closet (aka being opaque or transparent regarding one's sexuality - which, similarly, is not a 1:1 opposition) is inaccurate, an essentialist construct that needs reconsideration. From here de Villiers establishes his theory of “queer opacity”: the strategies in which queer subjects practice obfuscation to uncouple visibility, identity, and confessions from their subjectivity. By examining non-meanings and non-knowledge as “queer” strategies (15), we can therefore identify an alternative form of queer subjectivity: one in which transparency about one’s personal life is unnecessary.

Or, to sum up the above: the closet is a bad metaphor, so let’s look at how people openly queer in some parts of their life hide their sexuality in others. This will let us learn more about them and about queer people in general.

Anyways, I find this to be a fascinating concept that I will certainly reference in my own scholarship moving forward, but my god is this book dense and repetitive. I find the Warhol chapters to be the most useful at explicating the concept of queer opacity, but after the ninetieth example I was ready to move on. I question suddenly tying in postmodernism in the conclusion—wouldn’t this have worked better earlier on? I also wonder why de Villiers didn’t bring up Édouard Glissant and his visual theory of opacity/opacité, which seems to have influenced this book. Maybe because he didn’t want to delve into postcolonial theory? (understandable tbh)

And for complete transparency (hah): I struggled a lot with this book and writing this exegesis helped quite a bit. I will reread it in the near future.

[Armagan (any pronouns) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly a critique of commercialization of the genre biography in terms of selling the "secret sexualities"/closet homosexualities of the mentioned key figures through posthumous writing. It includes a complicated discussion of photography and representation, interview as a technique to reveal/hide oneself. The book seemed to be targeting to an over qualified reader. The part on Barthes seems the most complicated one to me. Warhol's anecdotes were enjoyable at first, then turned into a highly philosophical text.
But, the main thesis of the book is simple and clear. Alternativeness of the opacity discourse creates a flexibility against the hegemonic thinking which simplifies the queer existence under two extremes: being out and being closeted. Working on the function of the concept of opacity, Villiers extends the problem of "to be out or not to be out!" into opaqueness, a kind of undefinability. However, the book does not elaborate the problematic relation between the concept of visibility and the concept of opacity in the context of political emancipation. It would be highly complementary to be able to read the implications of opacity (as a politically queer positionality) in ruthlessly homophobic cultures/countries where people are still executed, imprisoned, physically tortured, systematically maltreated for being queer or where peaceful events such as Pride are banned by state law. What if opacity adversely affects communal visibility of queer people and/or coming outs help for solidarity within queer society? I couldn't find answers for such questions, but I enjoyed the originality of the discourse of the book. Also, a very informational content. Reading the book has motivated me to study Édouard Glissant in order to have an idea of the concept Opacity within the context of postcolonial theory. I guess the term as a political strategy originates from Glissant.

[Ery Caswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would love to read this book reimagined as narratives written by queer ppl who exemplify the thesis of this, but don't talk about it in jargonistic ways. I know that's me being a selfish reader and not wanting to read texts that aren't accessible to most ppl, but the central thesis itself is really compelling and has me reapproaching the question of authenticity.

opacity as a mechanism not just for "hiding" and survival but also to complicate what it is that straight people think they know about queer people. the seductive mystery, as I like to call it ((starting now))

[Kristin Towers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A roommate got me this after I took a couple of classes with this professor and fell totally in love with academia. This book is admittedly a hard read if you’re not already familiar with SOME vocabulary around queerness and queer literature, or philosophy for that matter, but that just means it deserves a re-read.

[Sceox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found two kinds of gifts in de Villiers' reading of the queer ways three public figures navigated interviews, of their resistances to the interview's effort to produce knowledge of the self. One kind: stories of tactical opacity--almost always intelligent, sometimes amusing, possibly even useful! The other, just as crucial, an ethical-strategic outlook in which this linguistic apparatus of sexuality, the closet and coming out, takes shape as something to resist.

So this a book to read if you feel uncomfortable when interviewed and interrogated, especially about sexuality, if you want to get outside the narrative of the closet as a way of thinking and living.

It feels like a collection of papers stitched into a book after the fact. As a result, you can read Opacity and the Closet in various ways. I read it straight through, but to a friend I would recommend reading just the preface and introduction, as I found them juiciest and much of the rest tedious.

[Erin Tuzuner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Negation of categorization is the ultimate form of rebellion. The elusive nature of sexuality creates many conversations on the nature of identity and self. The power to create and destroy oneself at will is enviable and subject to intense critique.

De Villiers does an excellent job of illustrating the myth of the closet and the various ways to challenge the desire to label people and their work.

[Mills College Library]

809.93353 D494 2012