Beyond Identity Politics

Abstract

Oral history has long been an important resource for lesbian and other underprivileged groups in advancing identity politics. While there is an increased awareness of social construction of identity and the impact of race and class on the experiences of sexual identities, oral historians have yet to rethink their task in view of poststructuralists' and queer theorists' critique of identity. This paper examines the "Oral History Project of Hong Kong Women Who Love Women" as an attempt to construct histories that respect difference and minimize normalization. It discusses the project's significance in terms of its subversion of the heterosexual/homosexual binary and its queering of the notions of identity, community and coming out. The critique unfolded is one of anti-assimilation and anti-minoritization. doi:10.1300/J155v10n03_03.

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