Queering the Nation or Normalizing the Queers? A Century of Political and Cultural Change
Drawing on historical examples as well as fictional representations in literature, cinema, theatre, television and radio, this lecture interrogates the relationship of queerness to the British nation from the Great War to the present. It documents the transition of queers from their framing as a suspect minority, a danger to the nation, to a limited tolerance for discreet, respectable, ‘genuine’ homosexuals by the mid-century, to the proliferation of queer-themed representations in recent decades alongside the rise of gay liberation and the battle over gay civil liberties. It concludes that queers in Britain have made undeniable progress, but at the cost of co-option for a homonational consensus.

All welcome. Please RSVP to mailto:college.office@balliol.ox.ac.uk if you would like to attend.
Date: 1 June 2023, 17:30 (Thursday, 6th week, Trinity 2023)
Venue: Balliol College, Broad Street OX1 3BJ
Venue Details: Master's Dining Room
Speaker: Professor Brian Lewis (Oliver Smithies Visiting Lecturer)
Organising department: Balliol College
Organiser contact email address: college.office@balliol.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Oliver Smithies Lectures
Booking required?: Required
Booking email: college.office@balliol.ox.ac.uk
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Belinda Clark, Jennifer Stewart