Wekker's politics of Passion, Robinson's Positionality, etc. for Transnational Perspectives of Gender and Sexuality

1. Where is Suriname?
Where’s the Netherlands
for that Matter?
Wekker and Robinson
Planet Queeeeeeeeer

4. Suriname Brief History
 Spanish explores in 16th century
 Settled by English in mid-17th century
 Dutch colony in 1667.
 independent from the Netherlands in 1975.
 1980- military power declared as socialist republic
 1987 –democratic election
 1990- military overthrow
 1991 to present elected government

5. Sranan Tongo
 Also known as Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese,
Suriname Creole English
 Creole language, spoken as native language by
120,000 people
 has influences of Dutch, English, Portuguese and
Central and West African languages
 used in formal education only since 1980s
 has been a written language since late 19th century,
given official spelling by government of Suriname in 1986
 second verse of nation anthem is in Sranan

6. Languages of Surinam
 Dutch (official),
 English (widely spoken),
 Sranang T ongo (Surinamese, sometimes
called Taki-Taki, is native language of Creoles
and much of the younger population and
lingua franca among others),
 Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi),
 Javanese

8. Self-reflexivity ala Robinson
Reflexivity—factual material shouldn’t be present by an omniscient and invisible narrator.
Yet, after 20 years of reflexivity (published in 2002, now it’s 26 years),
it’s been practiced so much that it’s time to critique. (see pp. 785-6)

9. Robinson
Positionality: “writing as a” 788
1. Reduce complexity of lives
2. cultural relativity
west and third world as internally coherent 789,
loses present day circumstances such as
multinational coprs and religious fundamentalism
3. Stereotypes:
a. ethnographers are reducible to simple identitiess:
essentialized qualities 790,789
• people written about react to ethnographer;
they are shifting processes, not unidirectional
teleologies 790;
most people quite proficient at assigning labels on
their own 791

10. Main ideas for Wekker
 1.
Wekker’s position as ethnographer
 Consider Robinson
 Consider depiction vis-à-vis Juliette
 Consider other ethnographic practices
(including those we’ve read this quarter)
Consider vis-à-vis other theoretical models
(see later slide)
 2. Study of sexuality
 3. Intersection with western knowledges

11. 2. Study of sexuality
 ｷ
mati work and how it compares to other
women loving women.
 sexual fulfillment, not the sex object of desire
 ｷ
different from male activity explanation
 ｷ
Not as gendered, but is often gendered
(48)

12. 3. Intersection with western
 ｷ
Ethnographer and her practices (esp. sex 19)
 ｷ
W’s “sassiness” and ageism
 ｷ
Trying to pay instead of paying for laundry, etc
 ｷ
Choosing to narrate as chronology and 3 forms
(personal, local, global) 49
 ｷ
Christina as “western” vs. Winti 45
 ｷ
War years: American (short weird section) 38-9
 ｷ
Political parties (replicating Dutch, in order to get
independence, too) 39-41

13. W’s theoretical models
 Engagement w/queer theory and sexuality
studies: 68
 black female sexuality
 literary criticism
 History
 not social scientific study,
yet ethnography

14. Addressing issues
overlooked in studies of
women who love women:
 sexual subjectivity built through
“grammatical principles”: mati work,
not being a mati 72,
 female sexuality is self driven 73
 not sexual identity: homosexual self 73

15. Dutch Citizenship--
2 ways to obtain it:
1. option procedure ( simpler and quicker than
naturalization)
 Need to have Dutch residence permit and one of 8
categories
 Relevant to us: married to a Dutch citizen for at
least three years and has legally lived in the
Netherlands, the Dutch Antilles or Aruba for
an uninterrupted period of at least 15 years.
 Applicants for Dutch citizenship through the
option procedure do not have to renounce any
foreign citizenship they hold.

16. 2. Naturalization
a. Applicant must meet all of conditions
 i. Aged 18 or over with a permanent resident
permit
 ii. 5 continuous years residence in the
Netherlands, the Dutch Antilles or Aruba with a valid
residence permit. There are a number of exceptions to
this rule.
 iii. Sufficiently integrated in Dutch society and
are able to read, write, speak, and understand Dutch.
This must normally be proved by taking a naturalization
test. Successful completion of an eligible integration
course is an alternative.
 iv. In the four years preceding the application,
the applicant has not been given any custodial sentence,
training order, community service order, or high
monetary penalty.
b. xemption to the residence requirement
E

17. How does this affect our
knowledge of globalization?
 How do methodologies compare with one
another?
 How do genres compare with one another?
 Think of crosscurrents and discontinuities
among texts: Sinnott and Wekker; Abu-Lughod
and Robinson and Wekker, Chua and Wekker,
Sassen and Wekker, Altman and Wekker, etc.