Abstract (eng)
This dissertation, "From Homemaking to Worldbuilding," investigates select (audio)visual media practices (such as film, television, photography and art) situated in the context of LGBTIQA+ communities from a perspective of Media Cultural Studies. All of the selected practices focus on motives of the home and the private, and they address negative affects (shame, etc.). Using theories from the field of care-ethics, I suggest that these media phenomena can be identified and analyzed as practices of care. The selection of examples is not narrowed down geographically, but instead specifically inquiring into possible interrelations of phenomena of the Global North and South. The period investigated roughly comprises the 2010s. This temporal and spatial framework is based on the assumption that broadened and overlapping digitalized cultures have become significantly interconnected approximately since the second decade of the 21st century. This yields transculturally comparable practices of production, reception and participation within diverse groups of queer and trans media actants, aesthetics and infrastructures. Over the same period of time, many scholars have critically observed late-capitalist forms of social inequality and neoliberal de-solidarization. By addressing homonormativity, increasing precariousness, as well as the lack of support structures for multiply discriminated queer and trans subjects, the media practices investigated in this study become part of this critique. My research questions include the following: Which changing understanding of transgression and the critique of domination emerges with these media phenomena? What happens if resistance and protest are not in direct contact with the ‘public’ sphere and/or with so-called strong affects (such as pride and outrage)? Which function do concepts of care take on in these media practices? In this thesis, I argue that the observed turn towards the domestic and towards negative affects in the context of LGBTIQA+ media practices takes place in a feminist tradition of the politicization of the private, and marks a stark opposition against neoliberal developments. Therefore, transgression is made politically productive within dispositions and modalities of vulnerability (Judith Butler) and discomfort (Sara Ahmed), and is implemented through care-ethical (Joan Tronto) tactics and strategies of queer worldbuilding (Lauren Berlant).