User:Senka/Thesis Proposal

Use this as a starting point:
a. What do you WANT to write? [What will the text be about? (thesis). What do you want to explore? 
Be clear about HOW you want to tell your story.]

What

I would like to explore forgotten and overlooked queer histories in the context of the Balkans in order to counter the idea that queerness is an export of the 'rotten West'.

How

I want to tell the story as a porous essay which allows for more fictional formats to seep into it. I want to do this in order to challenge how knowledge is produced in an academic context, as well as offer more narrative-driven and immersive writing. I want to employ a non-linear, fragmented, scattered mode of writing, (much like what Hedva has described in 'In Defence of the De-persons' or Machado in 'In the Dream House' ) which will reflect fragments of the histories I am getting to know. I want the reader to feel the text on their skin, to learn new things and be challenged (in what they consider knowledge). The thesis may or may not be written in the second person.

The 3 key issues I would like to explore are:
1. Narrative structure: homo nationalist narratives in the west (of the Balkans) and the narrative of queerness as inherently western (in the Balkans).
For this part I want to look into the structures of narratives, with what political agenda are they crafted with, as well look into the use of language.
Questions:

• What can be done to get out of the one way street in which LGBT questions are considered a marker of Europeanness? And therefore other to a local context?
• How can one counter homonationalist narratives that posit the west as a the source of queerness and non-western countries as a source of backwardness?
• How has the conception of national identities influenced the attitude towards queer identities?

2. Gaps and inconsistencies in archival knowledge (and alternative archival approaches as remedy)
I want to research queer Balkan histories and what forms of othering affect this region. Along with this I want to explore more fluid approaches to archival practices which experiment in what way knowledge is shared and distributed.
Questions:

• How could one dig up queer histories that have been hiding in plain sight, or overshadowed by violence?
• How does one address the violence cemented in archives? Or address the histories it choose not to include?

3. Political imaginaries
I want to see what potential political imaginaries have in changing the detrimental narrative that circulate about queer people. In exploring political imaginaries (int eh queer balkan context) I want to utilize different methods of creating narratives (imagining exercises, critical fabulation, theory fiction), to see what role they can play in bringing about a change.
Questions:

• Which forgotten queer Balkan histories would help us imagine the future differently?
• What do a local queer culture and a queer vocabulary look like when they are not forcefully copy pasted from western queer pop culture?
• How can (3d/immersive) fictioning from archival gaps and remains allow for new political imaginaries of queer futures?

Once you identify these you can begin your chapter outline (build on the 3 key issues by asking what research questions these lead to? Why is this key point important to you?). You will now have a frame for your text:
Introduction (what is this text about)
key issue 1 = chapter 1
key issue 2 = chapter 2
key issue 3 = chapter 3
Conclusion

Research Questions

For previous research questions look >here<