Abstract
How can we analyze a movement which embraces a non-identitarian vision but generates a new form of collective identity? How can this non-identity organize some publics? (p. 15) Konstantinos Eleftheriadis’s book Queer Festivals: Challenging Collective Identities in Transnational Europe answers these questions and sheds light on the controversial discussions of queer theory and queer activism based on the practical and discursive formation of queer festivals in Europe. In doing so, Eleftheriadis offers us new perspectives on gender and sexual politics in relation to other progressive movements.
As the LGBT movements in Western Europe started to gain political and institutional rights, the claims of the movement remained limited to marriage and adoption rights. The integration of the Western LGBT identities into the normative world of heteronormativity was followed by increasing sentiments of racism and xenophobia inside the LGBT communities (p. 12). Queer movement and queer theory emerged as a reaction to the mainstreaming of LGBT identities. Influenced by the global justice movements of the 2000s, the queer movement adopted a more inclusive and non-institutional agenda. Within this framework, anti-institutional forms of “queer” political organizing around local-based groups and transnational festivals emerged in the social movements scene (p. 14). Organized in various European cities, these festivals offer an alternative way of public visibility, collective production, and inclusive spaces by its diverse set of practices and discursive discussions. Along with acknowledging the local differences of these festivals, Eleftheriadis explores how non-identitarian queerness forms a new type of collective identity within these festival spaces and also manages to transcend its national borders.
In the first chapter, Eleftheriadis introduces us to the political dynamics behind the emergence of a queer movement shifting away from the traditional LGBT movement. With the entrance of queer theory into academia, the queer movement focused on creating alternative actions based on challenging the normative framework patriarchal, heteronormative, and capitalist modern society. Therefore, queer non-identity was not defined based on what queer is but rather based on what it is not (p. 18). The queer festivals became a center of analysis due to being primary organizations where this non-identitarian inclusive collective identity is formed.
The second chapter focuses on the historical background of European queer festivals and traces them back to the global justice movements, Queeruption festivals, and US-based queer theory (p. 39). AIDS/HIV crisis of the 1980s in the US resulted in the instrumentalization of the state and media to increase homophobia (p. 40). Increasing gay and lesbian rights activism of the era opened space for the questioning of traditional identity-based activism leading to the emergence of queer theory in US universities. Influenced by the poststructuralist approach of Foucault, Lacan, Althusser, and Derrida, a new generation of American scholars—especially Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990) and performance theory—started to develop queer theory and anti-identitarian sexual politics. Later on, their studies crossed US borders and influenced European academia. At the activist level, queer politics started to emerge with ACT UP branches in several European cities. The emergence of Queeruption festivals in various European cities in the 2000s led to the establishment of a transnational communication network (p. 46). Eleftheriadis suggests that the resources used by global justice movements coincide with the same types of resources that are used nowadays to form queer festivals: public spaces, social networks, decisional processes, and a repertoire of action and codes of communication (p. 47). After historically contextualizing the queer movement, the book suggests that sociological investigation shows that the majority of the festival populations were characterized by young middle-class people with high social capital.
The third chapter shifts away from the theoretical aspect and focuses on the practical formation of queer spaces. This chapter suggests that organizational mechanisms are inextricably part of queer festivals’ identity-building process (p. 54). Festivals take place in the squatting spaces of the cities in order to interact with the public and have transformative visibility based on their anti-institutional vision. The organizational committee of the festivals deals with the technical and logistics but also organizes the content of some of the events they are hosting. The process behind the logistics is one of the defining characteristics of these festival organizations. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) is the label that defines the horizontal and non-hierarchical organization form where the intention is the elimination of the binary opposition between organizers and consumers. It is a form of collective organization of the cooking, cleaning, doing bar shifts, or organizing an event to eliminate the oppressive forms of division of labor within the festival space (p. 66). The festivals are organized in a manner in which the oppression and exclusion of non-normative identities are eliminated from logistics to the events. This process is not pursued perfectly, some people were excluded or forgotten regardless of this form of organization but the organization committee creates an environment that is always up for criticism and change. While theoretically DIY practices are very inclusive and egalitarian, festival organizers suggest that eliminating the binary opposition between organizers and consumers is always practically much harder.
The fourth chapter shows the difference between LGBT and Queer more elaborately and points at the link between sexual and social movements (p. 81). Festivals encompass vegan activism, the feminist movement, environmental movement, and many other practices and approaches of left politics. The engagement of queer actors with post-Marxist feminist critiques creates an opportunity for the “commons” economic model in which collective production is intended in opposition to capitalist modes of production (p. 82). Autonomous modes of production and political relations constitute the political, economic, and also ethical ground of the festivals. Festivals are organized inclusively not only in terms of gender expression and sexual identity but also in terms of economic status (p. 88). Despite the inclusive attitude of the festival, age, education, disabilities, race, and religion are still obstacles in front of the targeted audience, namely everyone who identifies themselves outside the boundaries of the hegemonic identities.
The fifth chapter suggests that queer identity construction is not pursued only at the rational-critical level but at the practical and cultural level as well (p. 99). Performance, dressing, make-up, and various ways of bodily expression, as well as queer language, construct the aesthetics and linguistics of the festivals. Aesthetics of the festival enables public visibility and emancipatory ways for the participants to express their non-identitarian queer identity.
The sixth chapter suggests that multilingualism, the international composition of organization committees and participants, cross-border networks, and digital communication are the major components in terms of constructing queer festivals as transnational organizations. The arenas they create are not used as a strategic frame to enhance institutional visibility and obtain additional resources but rather created performatively through cross-border movements (p. 165). Chapter seven concludes the theoretical discussion and empirical findings of the study on queer festivals and raises several questions for further studies.
Eleftheriadis’s book is significant in terms of offering a new perspective on the relationship between queer theory and queer activism. By focusing on the organizational process of the events and logistics practically, in relation to the principles and policies they are constructed upon discursively, we can understand how the non-identitarian collective identity of queerness is constructed. As a contemporary theory and social movement, the definition of queer is still ambiguous and this ambiguity leads many activists from other social movements to identify queerness with political apathy. Eleftheriadis illustrates that this ambiguity is, in fact, the construction of an inclusive umbrella term to encompass multiple identities that define themselves both outside cis-heteronormativity and mainstream LGBTQI identity politics. Queer is a deviation from the norm, challenging and questioning boundaries that are upheld within mainstream society. Queer is also a utopia, not in the bourgeois sense of otherworldliness, but as a space that needs to be constantly (re)created and projected into new spaces, which is the aim of these events (p. 85).
While this book illustrates how these festivals create alternative safe spaces, opportunities for queer discussions and new forms of political activism diverging from traditional identity politics, it also points at the weaknesses and limits of these festivals. The festivals mostly reach the European population; the book acknowledges this accessibility problem and also limits the scope of the study to European cases. These festivals are predominantly characterized by middle-class or upper-class young and abled people with high social capital. Nevertheless, even the extensive usage of queer language tends to exclude participants with no university degree. Academics or graduate students working in gender studies tend to become authorities of the whole discursive discussion of the festival leading to the disruption of the non-hierarchical and horizontal structure of the festival. Another important highlight of the book is the rigid criticism of queer movements toward institutional LGBTQI rights politics. Eleftheriadis questions whether the criticism toward traditional institutional identity politics could be a Eurocentric criticism considering the fact that a lot of LGBTQI people outside the Western European borders do not even have basic legal rights. Eleftheriadis questions how can queer become a dynamic social movement and a strong oppositional pole against heteronormativity and gender binarism in contexts where strong homophobia is still very present in the institutional arena, and this influences “ordinary” people’s lives (p. 179). Institutional claims can still be crucial in the non-Western or other dominantly heteronormative and homophobic national contexts. This does not negate the idea that queer festivals offer insight into new forms of organizing inclusive public spaces for non-normative identities.
To conclude, Queer Festivals: Challenging collective Identities in Transnational Europe is a significant contribution to the analysis of queer movements. Sexualities readers can find this particular book influential in terms of thinking about new methods of gender and sexual politics. With the combination of aesthetics and performativity along with non-hierarchical and inclusive forms of organization, queer festivals offer new methodologies for queer activism.
ORCID iD
Hazal Aydın https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0569-5935