The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment

by Cameron Awkward-Rich

Overview

In The Terrible We Cameron Awkward-Rich thinks with the bad feelings and mad habits of thought that persist in both transphobic discourse and trans cultural production. Observing that trans studies was founded on a split from and disavowal of madness, illness, and disability, Awkward-Rich argues for and models a trans criticism that works against this disavowal. By tracing the coproduction of the categories of disabled and transgender in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century and analyzing transmasculine literature and theory by Eli Clare, Elliott DeLine, Dylan Scholinski, and others, Awkward-Rich suggests that thinking with maladjustment might provide new perspectives on the impasses arising from the conflicted relationships among trans, feminist, and queer. In so doing, he demonstrates that rather than only impeding or confining trans life, thought, and creativity, forms of maladjustment have also been and will continue to be central to their development.

Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478023302
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	08/08/2022
Series:	ASTERISK
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Cameron Awkward-Rich is Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of Dispatch and Sympathetic Little Monster.

Table of Contents

Preface/Acknowledgments  vii
Introduction: On Staying with the Terrible We  1
1. Disabled Histories of Trans  31
Holding Space  61
2. Trans, Feminism: Or, Reading Like a Depressed Transsexual  67
3. Some Dissociative Trans Masc Poetics  89
4. We's Company  117
Afterword/Elegy  143
Notes  151
Bibliography  171
Index  187

What People are Saying About This

Trans Exploits: Trans of Color Cultures and Technologies in Movement - Jian Neo Chen

“Cameron Awkward-Rich intervenes in this critical moment in trans studies through a discerning, generous, and imaginative rereading of the debates, texts, and archives that have provided trans studies with its initial anchors. Reflecting on and resituating the early archive and critical practices of trans studies through a capacious and nuanced understanding of the field’s formative gestures, The Terrible We is a pathbreaking work.”

Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad - Hil Malatino

“This imperative, timely, and necessary contribution to trans studies, disability studies, and mad studies does the kind of meta-level thinking about the ongoing genealogies of contestation and consolidation that grant trans studies institutional and political legitimacy. Cameron Awkward-Rich refuses to simply recite debates about the relationships among transness, trans studies and feminism, and trans studies and queer theory; he thinks through the unspoken and elided disavowals at work within them. Awkward-Rich is the kind of critical genealogist we need in the longue durée of the supposed trans tipping point.”

Editorial Reviews

The Terrible We serves as an important guide for those interested in new ways of viewing trans life in both its positive and negative aspects and those wanting to use everyday archives in a method that is more interested in fractures and gaps rather than acceptance and completion.”—Jacob Debrock, TSQ

"While the interruption of trans thought’s methodological distancing from disability is the central project of The Terrible We, a key intervention is also the book’s framing of the relation between trans and feminist thought. Awkward-Rich traces the tense relation between them, and reads this relation from the position of depression."—Stephanie Clare, Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

"One might not expect a book about bad feelings and mad habits to be a joy to read, but The Terrible We is beautifully written and important. . . . Honest, patient, and calling the reader to critically revisit how the splitting of trans from madness and disability has robbed trans discourse of important history and also depth, The Terrible We is a challenging and very much necessary book relevant to several intersecting constituencies and academic disciplines."—Claudia Schippert, Lateral

From the Publisher

"One might not expect a book about bad feelings and mad habits to be a joy to read, but The Terrible We is beautifully written and important. . . . Honest, patient, and calling the reader to critically revisit how the splitting of trans from madness and disability has robbed trans discourse of important history and also depth, The Terrible We is a challenging and very much necessary book relevant to several intersecting constituencies and academic disciplines."

Lateral - Claudia Schippert

"While the interruption of trans thought’s methodological distancing from disability is the central project of The Terrible We, a key intervention is also the book’s framing of the relation between trans and feminist thought. Awkward-Rich traces the tense relation between them, and reads this relation from the position of depression."

Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory - Stephanie Clare

The Terrible We serves as an important guide for those interested in new ways of viewing trans life in both its positive and negative aspects and those wanting to use everyday archives in a method that is more interested in fractures and gaps rather than acceptance and completion.

TSQ - Jacob Debrock