Theory Is Not a Luxury: Literary Studies, Sociology, and Minoritarian Critique

Abstract

This article makes a case for bringing Literary Studies and Sociology together to theorize the intersections of race, Indigeneity, gender, and sexuality. Anchored in Audre Lorde’s claim “poetry is not a luxury,” I demonstrate how the logics conveyed in sociological concepts of gender and sexuality can just as easily be conveyed in poetry, and that non-white gender and sexual minorities, or “minoritarian subjects” (Muñoz), have often turned to poetry for this reason. I argue that sociologists’ refusal to recognize poetry’s analytical potential serves to limit their analyses of gender and sexuality to the white supremacist roots of the discipline. I explore the works of two "Canada"-based writers: Joshua Whitehead, a two-spirit Indigiqueer, and Trish Salah, an Arab Canadian trans woman. My analysis is framed around two popular queer and trans of colour theoretics: disidentification and monstrosity and designed to show that poetry and social theory are one in the same.