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Thinking with Trans Narratives at the Limits of Ontology and Temporality

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Thinking with Trans Narratives at the Limits of Ontology and Temporality Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 10-8-2020 10:30 AM Between Worlds, Between Times: Thinking with Trans Narratives at the Limits of Ontology and Temporality Elden L. Yungblut, The University of Western Ontario Supervisor: Calcagno, Antonio, The University of Western Ontario A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the Master of Arts degree in Theory and Criticism © Elden L. Yungblut 2020 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Yungblut, Elden L., "Between Worlds, Between Times: Thinking with Trans Narratives at the Limits of Ontology and Temporality" (2020). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 7412. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7412 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Between Worlds, Between Times: Thinking with Trans Narratives at the Limits of Ontology and Temporality Abstract My thesis offers up an explicitly transfeminist mobilization of the theoretical notions of ontological pluralism and queer temporality against the pervasive cultural norm of cis- normativity and the dominant temporal logic of chrono-normativity. First, I critique the blatantly transphobic and fallacious rhetoric of Kathleen Stock, the face of the “gender critical” feminist movement in the UK, which I contextualize as part of a contemporary resurgence of the hateful legacy of trans-exclusion rooted in the second wave feminist movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s and cemented in academic theory by Janice Raymond’s (1979) Transsexual Empire. I then delve deeper, aiming to expose a subtle and under interrogated trend of transphobia and trans-resistant presuppositions endemic to Anglo-American and French feminist philosophy through an extended engagement with the work and thought of Luce Irigaray and Judith Butler. Next I trace an evolution of philosophical treatments of the notions of ontology and temporality, from the early groundbreaking interventions of Immanuel Kant and Martin Heidegger in the historically masculinist continental philosophical tradition, to the contemporary notions of ontological pluralism and queer temporalities. Finally, I engage in an affirmatively critical analysis of a selection of autoethnographic and autobiographical accounts of transsexual femininity and transfeminine transitioning. Ultimately I argue that the embracement of diverse and even seemingly conflictual narratives of gendered existence, including both transsexual narratives and narratives of gender variance or nonconformity – a possibility predicated on broadened and radically inclusive understandings of ontology and temporality – is crucial to both the theoretical goal of expanding and transforming hegemonic cultural understandings of gender in relation to personal identity, and to the political aim of fostering equitable and just conditions for persons who occupy nonhegemonic subject positions – specifically trans and nonbinary identities – in society. Keywords Feminist Philosophy, Feminist Phenomenology, Ontological Pluralism, Queer Temporality, Queer Theory, Transfeminism, Transgender Studies i Summary for Lay Audience In my thesis I contend that the eradication of societal trans-resistance and transphobia depends in part upon embracing narratives of gendered experience which may depart from or conflict with conventional temporal and ontological norms. I start by exploring how the concepts of temporality (time) and ontology (the study of existence) have been dealt with in the history of philosophy in order to show how current avenues of thought in the academic domains of queer theory and transgender studies can build on and amend early philosophical approaches to thinking about the human experience in new and productive ways. Specifically, I emphasize how the work and thought of current queer and trans theorists is paving a path toward more inclusive and less “normative” ways of understanding and conceptualizing how human beings exist, ontologically and temporally, as gendered beings with distinct and equally valid ways of self- identifying (i.e. “gender identities”). Acknowledgments I humbly acknowledge, and pledge my fierce and undying solidarity to, the many scholars for whom the academic theorization of gender and sexuality is not a dispassionate or apolitical endeavour. Your smallest acts of resistance carry greater integrity and force than even the most violent attempts to silence or discredit them. Many thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Antonio Calcagno, and second reader, Dr. Wendy Pearson, for their thoughtful guidance and feedback during this process. I also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. ii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i Summary for Lay Audience ........................................................................................................... ii 1 Chapter One: Introduction: Gender and Subjectivity .......................................................... 1 1.1 Acknowledgment of Positionality ............................................................................................. 1 1.2 Initial Frameworks for Conceiving of the Subject ................................................................. 4 1.3 A Preliminary Roadmap to Thinking Beyond the Gender Binary ....................................... 6 2 Identifying the Enemy: A Critique of Contemporary Trans-Exclusionary Feminism ....... 9 2.1 A Brief Primer on the Term ‘TERF’ ....................................................................................... 9 2.2 Critique of Kathleen Stock ..................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Transphobic Bias and the De-Literalization of Sex .............................................................. 14 2.4 Trans-Exclusionary Anti-Essentialism .................................................................................. 16 2.5 Critique of Meghan Murphy .................................................................................................. 22 3 The Ontology of Sexual Difference Through the Looking Glass: A Deeper Look at Transphobic/Trans-Resistant Sentiment in Feminist Philosophy ............................................. 27 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 27 3.2 The Sexually Differentiated Body .......................................................................................... 29 3.3 Sexual Difference and Transsexuality ................................................................................... 34 3.4 Addressing the Charge of Essentialism in Irigaray .............................................................. 38 3.5 Redefining the Morphology of the Feminine: A Transfeminist Recuperation of Irigaray’s Model of Sexual Difference .................................................................................................................. 42 4 Gender and Time: From Queer Temporality to Trans Temporalities ............................... 48 4.1 Chapter Breakdown ................................................................................................................ 48 4.2 The Indissoluble Union of Gender and Time ........................................................................ 50 4.3 Dasein: A Temporal Being ...................................................................................................... 55 4.4 Heidegger’s Kantian Roots ..................................................................................................... 57 4.5 Temporalizing .......................................................................................................................... 58 4.6 Historicality .............................................................................................................................. 59 4.7 Queer Temporalities ................................................................................................................ 60 5 Comparative Analysis of a Selection of Autoethnographic and Autobiographical Trans Narratives ..................................................................................................................................... 64 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 64 5.2 Opposing Ontologies: Reconciling Seemingly Conflictual Ontologico-Temporal Narratives of Transgender Self-Determination and Discovery ........................................................ 67 iii 5.3 A Preface to the Analysis of Nevada’s Literary Narrativization of Transgender Experience ............................................................................................................................................. 71 5.4 Comparative Analysis ............................................................................................................. 73 6 A Mobilization of María Lugones’ Notion of Ontological Pluralism ...............................
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