Queer Terror: Life, Death, and Desire in the Settler Colony (New Directions in Critical Theory, 59)

After Sept. 11, 2001, George W. Bush declared, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” Bush’s assertion was not simply jingoist bravado―it encapsulates the civilizationalist moralism that has motivated and defined the United States since its beginning, linking the War on Terror to the nation’s settlement and founding. In Queer Terror, C. Heike Schotten offers a critique of U.S. settler-colonial empire that draws on political, queer, and critical indigenous theory to situate Bush’s either/or moralism and reframe the concept of terrorism. The categories of the War on Terror exemplify the moralizing politics that insulate U.S. empire from critique, render its victims deserving of its abuses, and delegitimize resistance to it as unthinkable and perverse. Schotten provides an anatomy of this moralism, arguing for a new interpretation of biopolitics that is focused on sovereignty and desire rather than racism and biology. This rethinking of biopolitics puts critical political theory of empire in dialogue with the insights of both native studies and queer theory. Building on queer theory’s refusal of sanctity, propriety, and moralisms of all sorts, Schotten ultimately contends that the answer to Bush’s ultimatum is clear: dissidents must reject the false choice he presents and stand decisively against “us,” rejecting its moralism and the sanctity of its “life,” in order to further a truly emancipatory, decolonizing queer politics. C. Heike Schotten is associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is the author of Nietzsche’s Revolution: Décadence, Politics, and Sexuality (2009). Table of Contents ......Page 8 Acknowledgments ......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 1. The Biopolitics of Empire: Slavery and “the Muslim” ......Page 26 2. The Biopolitics of Settlement: Temporality, Desire, and Civilization ......Page 56 3. Foucault and Queer Theory ......Page 91 4. Society Must Be Destroyed ......Page 118 5. Queer Terror ......Page 151 Notes ......Page 194 Bibliography ......Page 244 Index ......Page 262 C. Heike Schotten offers a critique of U.S. settler-colonial empire that draws on political, queer, and critical indigenous theory to reframe the concept of terrorism. She provides an anatomy of the War on Terror's moralism, arguing for a new interpretation of biopolitics that is focused on sovereignty and desire rather than racism and biology. The Biopolitics Of Empire : Slavery And The Muslim -- The Biopolitics Of Settlement : Temporality, Desire, And Civilization -- Foucault And Queer Theory -- Society Must Be Destroyed -- Queer Terror -- Bibliography. C. Heike Schotten. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.