Departing from the theoretical position that childhood is a construction of identity, this article examines queer theory about childhood, arguing that definitions of ‘queer theory’ and of ‘childhood’ affect each other specifically in complex ways. In relation to this, it is argued that even where ‘queer theory’ defines itself as the dismantling of foundational categories, childhood often escapes this dismantling inadvertently and unintentionally. The reasons for, and implications of, this are explored.

Through a close analysis of socio-biologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy’s work on motherhood and ‘mirror neurons’ it is argued that Hrdy’s claims exemplify how research that ostensibly bases itself on neuroscience, including in literary studies ‘literary Darwinism’, relies after all not on scientific, but on political assumptions, namely on underlying, unquestioned claims about the autonomous, transparent, liberal agent of consumer capitalism. These underpinning assumptions, it is further argued, involve the suppression or overlooking of an alternative, prior tradition of feminist theory, including (...) feminist science criticism. (shrink)

Angelaki, Volume 17, Issue 1, Page 31-40, March 2012.