Curiouser: On The Queerness Of Children

by Steven Bruhm, Natasha Hurley (Contributor)

Our culture has a dominant narrative about children: they are (and should stay) innocent of sexual desires and intentions. At the same time, children are officially, tacitly, assumed to be heterosexual. Curiouser is a book about this narrative and what happens when it takes an unexpected, or queer, turn-when the stories of childhood must confront a child whose play does not conform to the ideal of child (a)sexuality.The contributors to Curiouser examine the ostensibly simple representations of children that circulate through visual images, life narrative, children's literature, film, and novels. At issue in these essays are the stories we tell to children, the stories we tell about children, and the stories we tell ourselves as children-stories that ultimately frame what is normative and what is queer. From the fiction of Horatio Alger, Henry James, Djuna Barnes, and Guy Davenport to the spectacles of Michael Jackson, Calvin Klein, and The Exorcist; from the narrative structure of pedophilia to evangelical Christianity; from punk tomboyism to queer girl-scouting: these scholars of childhood and sexuality scrutinize queer childhood energies in an impressive range of cultural forms.

Contributors: Lauren Berlant, U of Chicago; Andre Furlani, Concordia U; Judith Halberstam, U of California, San Diego; Ellis Hanson, Cornell U; Paul Kelleher; Kathryn Kent, Williams College; James Kincaid, U of Southern California; Richard Mohr, U of Illinois, Urbana; Michael Moon, Johns Hopkins U; Kevin Ohi, Boston College; Eric Savoy, U of Montreal; Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, CUNY Graduate Center; Kathryn Bond Stockton, U of Utah; Michael Warner, Rutgers U.

Steven Bruhm is associate professor of Englishat Mount St. Vincent University. He is the author of Reflecting Narcissus: A Queer Aesthetic (Minnesota, 2000) and Gothic Bodies: The Politics of Pain in Romantic Fiction (1994). Natasha Hurley has taught children's literature and queer theory at Mount St. Vincent University and St. Mary's University in Halifax.

Genres: Queer, Nonfiction, LGBT, Essays

376 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most collections—some pieces fascinating, some utter gobbledygook, some in between. A few were uncomfortable to read, as they apparently condone adult sex with children in some situations. Though I see where these arguments come from, it’s a slippery slope. Nonetheless, many of the chapters were fascinating—a personal favorite was the piece on queer Girl Scouts. Worth a look.

[Ellie Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collection of essays in this book were super interesting and also very helpful for my dissertation!

[Emily]

I've only read the Kincaid and Stockton essays so far. it's Super interesting and thought provoking. it's a highly intellectual, critical, and objective way of looking at the ways in which we sexualize children--no political implications no, "it's wrong" or "we shouldn't" but pointing out how weird we are about the topic. Why we "desexualize" children--children are not sexual--but also assume that all children are heterosexual--assinging them sexual desires and behaviors. Stockton's next book (out next year), entirely on Queerness and Childhood, was spawned from her writing this essay.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't read all of the essays, but it's a book I saw fit to keep on my shelf and not re-sell after my class. I'd like to read some more of it.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some insightful essays about reading queer children in literature, and a few "I have no idea what point the author is trying to make but I gotta read this before class tomorrow" essays.