Queer Theory and Brokeback Mountain Discussion Questions Part I 1. How and when did sexology and psychoanalysis emerge to explain human sexuality? 2. What assumptions about human sexuality do sexology and psychoanalysis make? 3. How did the writings of Michel Foucault respond to the theories of psychoanalysis? 4. How did Foucault theorize the relation between language and gender/sexuality in institutions such as medicine and the law? 5. What are the distinctions between sex, sexuality and gender? 6. How does queer theory relate to feminism? 7. What did Eve Sedgwick mean by “homosociality” and how does it relate to homosexuality? 8. How does queer theory explain human sexuality in relation to practices such as marriage, reproduction, child-rearing, labor, and leisure? 9. What does Judith Butler mean when she describes human sexuality and gender as performative? 10. Why is cinema important for queer theory’s explanations of sexuality and gender? Part II 1. What aspects of the lives of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist would queer theorists focus upon in order to make sense of the intimacy and sexual contact between them? 2. Why does the historical era in which Brokeback Mountain is set matter to its depictions of same-sex sexuality? 3. How would Michel Foucault’s ideas about biopolitics serve to explain the genders and sexualities we see at work in Brokeback Mountain? 4. What does Brokeback Mountain suggest about the lives of women in the historical period it depicts and how might feminism and queer theory explain these depictions? 5. How is the relation between Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist homosocial and homosexual? 6. How are masculinity and femininity performative in Brokeback Mountain? 7. How does the history of the Hollywood Western film shape the narrative of Brokeback Mountain? 8. Why is the ambiguity around the circumstances of Jack Twist’s death important for understanding Ennis del Mar’s and Lureen Twist’s responses to this event? .