Jacek Kornak, MA
Doctoral student, Gender Studies
Politics of Philosophy and Gender (PPhiG)
Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies
P.O. Box 59
FI-00014 University of Helsinki
FINLAND
tel: +358 9 191 23387
fax: +358 9 191 23315
Research interests
My PhD project is a study within the field of feminist theory. The main focus of the study is one concept “queer” – how it has been used in the academic context since the 1990s, and how it can be used as a political concept. As a political concept “queer” is paradoxical. It designates politics that contests the traditional notion of politics, a group that challenges definitions of belonging, a movement that has no clear aims or limits. “Queer” has been used as a critical category and it does not have one particular meaning. Semantically, it has been a very unstable concept. Yet, the concept “queer” has been one of the most successful terms in mobilizing signs since the 1990s within the political cultures of the first world. The roots of the use of this concept in post-structural philosophy and literary theory will be traced here, with a close connection to the contemporary political theories and practices. I will look at this sign in a relation to semiotics and politics. Finally, I will analyse how queer theorists, through the introduction of concepts and methods from literary studies into political thought and practice, deconstruct our understanding of the collective subject in contemporary political thinking.
My PhD thesis is supervised by professor Tuija Pulkkinen.