Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts, p. 3 - 37

During the third session of Family Fictions, we will discuss queer family making and the representation of relationships between people who identify as transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming. We will read together the first part of ‘The Argonauts’ by means of an introduction to Nelson’s expansive way of considering identity, caretaking, parenthood and freedom, but we warmly recommend you to read the whole book.

Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge. This story, which includes Nelson's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, offers a firsthand account of the complexities and joys of (queer) family-making.

During this session Marion Wasserbauer will create a theoretical framework for Nelson's 'The Argonauts'.

Marion Wasserbauer (*1988) just finished her PhD research on LGBTQs and music. Marion moved from studying languages and literature to the social sciences, and her fascination with stories and narratives moved with her: fiction relies on stories, but also in real life stories are essential in how we perceive and present ourselves. Her interest in all things queer not only guided her research, but also manifests itself in her activities for çavaria vzw and Strangelove - a queer festival.

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'Family Fictions' is a reading group led by Laura Herman and Charlotte Van Buylaere. It is a discussion platform and an introduction to the exhibition 'The Family Trap', which will take place at Kunsthal Extra City in the autumn of 2019.

Read or download here the text 'The Argonauts' by Maggie Nelson (p. 3 - 37)

Language English