On Making Sense Queer Race Narratives of Intelligibility [Hardcover]

On Making Sensejuxtaposes texts produced by black, Latino, and Asian queer writers and artists to understand how knowledge is acquired and produced in contexts of racial and gender oppression. From James Baldwin's 1960s novelAnother Countryto Margaret Cho's turn-of-the-century stand-up comedy, these works all exhibit a preoccupation with intelligibility, or the labor of making sense of oneself and of making sense to others. In their efforts to make sense, these writers and artists argue against merely being accepted by society on society's terms, but articulate a desire to confront epistemic injusticean injustice that affects people in their capacity as knowers and as communities worthy of being known.

The book speaks directly to critical developments in feminist and queer studies, including the growing ambivalence to antirealist theories of identity and knowledge. In so doing, it draws on decolonial and realist theory to offer a new framework to understand queer writers and artists of color as dynamic social theorists.

In this innovative book, Mart?nez reads literary texts and performances by queer Latina/o and Asian American writers and artists to reveal them confronting the historical and present injustice of their having been denied the capacity to know and be known. . . . This book moves cultural theory forward a step toward enabling material changes in oppressive social structures. . . . Recommended. This book examines the contributions of queer writers and artists of color to contemporary social theory.Ernesto Javier Mart?nez is an Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and of Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. He is the co-editor ofGay Latino Studies: A Critical Reader(2011). On the whole, Ernesto Javier Martinez's book makes a salient point that will warm the hearts and raise the hopes of a wide range of audiences, beginning with constituencies in the global north invested in decolonializing justice al£,