The Foreclosure of the Drive: Queer Theories, Gender, Sex, and the Politics of Recognition

Following Leo Bersani and Lee Edelman, one might say that, by insisting on sexual minorities’ quest for social recognition, Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity runs the risk of desexualizing sexuality. On the other hand, so-called antisocial queer theory, and Edelman in particular, could be held responsible for depoliticizing queer politics, by depriving its subject of political agency. Aim of this article is to mediate between these two positions in queer theory on the level of a theory of the subject, by means of Teresa de Lauretis’ understanding of the concept of the drive.