Robert Gillett

Viewing critical psychology through the lens of queer

This article constitutes an intervention by two arts and humanities scholars with an expertise in queer studies and an outsiders interest in the discipline of critical psychology. First, it proposes a critical comparative history of the homosexual rights movements that predates ‘queer’ and the development of the discipline of psychology. Second, it examines some of the most recent currents in queer theory and tests their applicability to psychology. In particular, it looks at the modes of ethical philosophy that have been engaged by the so-called antisocial turn in queer and asks to what extent post-structuralist models of ethics might trouble the foundational belief in a normative idea(l) of health, in which even progressive critical psychology has an investment.

Writing queer performance: Hubert Fichte's inimitable Imitations

This article seeks to make a case for regarding the German author Hubert Fichte, who died in 1986 at the tragically early age of 50, as a proto-queer author at least on a par with Jean Genet. It does so by subjecting to minute analysis a seminal passage from Fichtes third novel, and radiating out from there to show how, especially in his characteristic invocations of camp, drag, ritual and imitation, he interrogates the very notion of ‘identity’ in a way which not only anticipates some of the most celebrated insights of queer theory, but also puts them into inimitable (writerly) practice.

'Den kindern erzählt'? Hebel's Biblische geschichten in the hands of Ernst Johann and Emily Anderson

Abstract The Biblische Geschichten occupy a slightly peculiar position — at once central and marginal — in Hebels æuvre. This article sets out to illuminate the nature of this text by focusing on Ernst Johanns 1959 edition and Emily Andersons 1961 translation. In examining what is missing — but also what is retained — in either, it sheds light on the structure of the text and the attitude of mind it implies; on issues of voice and audience, and hence on the relationship between this text and its more famous predecessor, the Schatzkästlein; and on questions of language and style, especially the relationship between this text and the Lutheran bible. It also seeks to correct some misunderstandings about, and to demonstrate extraordinary quality of, this late masterpiece.