Question 1

What is Butler's theory of performativity?

Accepted Answer

In Gender Trouble (1990), Butler argues that gender is not a fixed inner essence but is constituted through repeated, stylised acts. There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender — the performance is all there is. Drag makes this visible by exaggerating the constructedness of gender.

Question 2

What is 'heteronormativity'?

Accepted Answer

Coined by Michael Warner in Fear of a Queer Planet (1993), heteronormativity refers to the systemic privileging of heterosexuality as natural and universal, enforced through institutions, culture, and everyday assumptions — not merely individual prejudice.

Question 3

What is Sedgwick's 'epistemology of the closet'?

Accepted Answer

Sedgwick argues in Epistemology of the Closet (1990) that the closet is not just a personal experience of secrecy but an organising structure of modern Western culture. The binary of knowing/not knowing about homosexuality structures vast domains of knowledge, culture, and power.

Question 4

What did Foucault argue about sexuality in The History of Sexuality Vol. 1?

Accepted Answer

Foucault (1976) argued that the Victorian era produced an explosion of discourse about sexuality — not repression. The 'homosexual' as a human type was a 19th-century medical and legal invention. Sexuality is a product of power/knowledge, not a natural fact.

Question 5

What is Adrienne Rich's 'compulsory heterosexuality'?

Accepted Answer

In her 1980 essay, Rich argued heterosexuality is not natural but a political institution imposed on women, erasing lesbian existence. It is a key precursor to queer theory's critique of heteronormativity.

Question 6

What is 'homosocial desire' as used by Sedgwick?

Accepted Answer

In Between Men (1985), Sedgwick argued that male homosocial bonds (friendship, rivalry, mentorship) exist on a continuum with homosexual desire. Literary texts organise male bonding through triangular desire — two men bonded via their shared interest in a woman — with anxiety about the homo/heterosexual divide running through these structures.

Queer Theory — UGC NET MCQs

Queer Theory — UGC NET MCQs