Transgression in queer theory

Through an analysis of several theorists who have influenced queer canon, this thesis explores the concept of transgression and queer subjectivity. Beginning with the claim that subjects experience queerness through a process as opposed to a fixed, internal queer identity possessed by a subject, the work frames social and institutional power and subjectivity as intersecting phenomena in the production, reinscription, and performativity of queer transgression. Theoretically engaging Judith Butler, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Michel Foucault, and Sara Ahmed, the thesis draws upon frameworks of performativity, the Body without Organs, The History of Sexuality, and The Cultural Politics of Emotion to claim that queer subjectivity and institutional sexuality operate in tandem through the idea of transgression.