Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the conceptualizations of the social embeddedness of the subject in two recent collections, Silvia Tamale’s African Sexualities (2011) and Oyeronke Oyewumi’s Gender Epistemologies in Africa (2011).

Paper long abstract:

This paper wishes to discuss interlinkages and differences between ways of theorizing "the subject" and relationality in feminist and queer theory in different settings. I will contrast Judith Butler's performative queer sexualities with feminist discussions on sexualities and subjecthood in Africa as expressed in two recent collections, Silvia Tamale's African Sexualities (2011) and Oyeronke Oyewumi's Gender Epistemologies in Africa (2011). In this paper I am specifically interested in the ways power, relationality, the social embeddedness of the subject, and the fragility of human life and individuality are discussed. These conceptualizations will be further discussed as ideas that can bring together, rather than separate the different contexts of analyzing sexuality. Further, I am concerned with the way an oppositional discourse inherent in feminist scholarship may re-generate a myth of the heroic male Subject as an analytical concept in a way that is unhelpful in the field of sexuality studies.