Straight nation
Heteronormativity and other exigencies of postcolonial nationalism
By Pavan Mano
Book Information
- Format: eBook
- Published Date: March 2025
Description
In Straight Nation, Pavan Mano reveals the logic of straightness that sits at the heart of postcolonial nationalism in Singapore. Mano rejects the romantic notion of the nation as a haven of belonging, showing it to be a relentless force that is allied with heteronormativity to create a host of minoritized and xenologized figures. Through meticulous exploration and close reading of a swathe of texts, Mano unveils the instrumental role of sexuality in structuring the national imaginary. The book adroitly demonstrates how queerness is rendered foreign in postcolonial Singapore and functions alongside technologies of "race", gender, and class. A provocative critique of narrow contemporary identity politics and its concomitant stymying of a more ambitious political critique, Straight Nation sets out an argument that moves beyond the negativity of traditional critique into a space of (re)thinking, (re)building and (re)imagining.
Contents
Introduction: Producing a straight nation
1 'Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?': Nationalism, the illusion of nation, and the counter-nation
2 Three faces of the straight nation
3 The work of kinship
4 Xenologizing queerness
5 Heteronormativity (un)contested - or, the will to assimilation
Epilogue: The futility of nationalist flirtations
Author
Pavan Mano is Lecturer in Global Cultures & Interdisciplinary Education in the Department of Liberal Arts at King's College London.