When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader

by Susan Stryker, McKenzie Wark (Editor)

Overview

Susan Stryker is a foundational figure in trans studies. When Monsters Speak showcases the development of Stryker’s writing from the 1990s to the present. It combines canonical pieces, such as “My Words to Victor Frankenstein,” with her hard to find earlier work published in zines and newsletters. Brought together, they ground Stryker’s thought in 1990s San Francisco and its innovative queer, trans, and S/M cultures. The volume includes an introduction by editor McKenzie Wark, who highlights Stryker’s connections to developments in queer theory, media studies, and autotheory while foregrounding Stryker’s innovative writing style and scholarly methods. When Monsters Speak is an authoritative and essential collection by one of the most important and influential intellectuals of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478059462
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	06/24/2024
Series:	ASTERISK
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	529 KB

About the Author

Susan Stryker is Professor Emerita of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona. She is the author of Transgender History and coeditor of The Transgender Studies Reader.

McKenzie Wark is Professor of Culture and Media at The New School and the author of several books, including Raving and Philosophy for Spiders: On the Low Theory of Kathy Acker, both also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction / McKenzie Wark
Part I. Trans Sanfrisco
1. Trick Dive
2. The Surgeon Haunts My Dreams
3. Renaissance and Apocalypse: Notes on the Bay Area’s Transsexual Arts Scene
4. Across the Border: On the Anarchorporeality Project A Discussion between Kathy High and Susan Stryker
5. Los Angeles at Night
6. Dungeon Intimacies: The Poetics of Transsexual Sadomasochism
7. Perfect Day
8. Ketamine Journal
9. See Beams Glitter
Part II. Trans Theory as Gender Theory
10. The Time Has Come to Think about Gayle Rubin
11. Transgender Feminism: Queering the Woman in Question
12. Transgender History, Homonormativity, and Disciplinarity
13. Lesbian Generations: Transsexual . . . Lesbian . . . Feminis
Part III. When Monsters Speak
14. My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage
15. Transgender Studies: Queer Theory’s Evil Twin
16. Transing the Queer (In)human
17. More Words about “My Words to Victor Frankenstein”
Conclusion. Interview, McKenzie Wark and Susan Stryker
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Histories of the Transgender Child - Jules Gill-Peterson

“Decades ago, the monster demanded a word with its creator, and thus was trans studies born. In these pages, trace years of intellectual labor without an academic job in queer San Francisco. Study the obligate fiction of a field’s birth. And surrender to the fear, then the pleasure, of challenging the surgeon in your head. Chase the experience, half psychedelic twinkle, half S/M ripple, of enacting theory in the flesh. Reading Susan Stryker, we are gloriously transformed.”

Editorial Reviews

Whenever Susan Stryker speaks, I listen. Stryker’s career is one of those that has altered the way that those of us who came after her think—and live our lives. We are so lucky to now have a collection that allows us to trace her thoughts over her own life.

Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters

"Stryker provides a bracing assessment of frictions within the LGBTQ movement, criticizing cis gay and lesbian individuals who seek to secure a place in mainstream society by excluding trans people. . . . The result is a striking introduction to the work of an essential queer thinker."

Publishers Weekly

"In this slim volume, McKenzie Wark has collected some of Susan Stryker’s most prominent pieces, both fiction and nonfiction. Wark provides a robust introduction, setting the stage for this and subsequent generations to fully grasp the importance and context of her work."

Ms. Magazine - Karla Strand

"All roads to trans studies lead back to Susan Stryker and the collection of her writing, When Monsters Speak (edited by McKenzie Wark), is an essential buy. I and many others would not be here without Stryker."

The Queer Review - Caden Mark Gardner