This coauthored introduction reflects on some of the impacts of José Esteban Muñoz’s life and work—from his scholarship through his friendship and mentoring to his collaborations in intellectual and social life. The coauthors emphasize Muñoz’s commitment to both the production … Continue reading “Being with José: An Introduction”
Issue: Issue 121 Winter 2014
Ode to José Esteban Muñoz
Jean-Luc NancyWith a translation by Damon R. Young
Compensatory Hypertrophy, or All about My Mother
Joshua Chambers-LetsonThinking with the work of José Esteban Muñoz, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Pedro Almodóvar’s film All about My Mother, this essay traces a series of transplants, organs, and acts of compensation that occur within all three in order to explore the question … Continue reading “Compensatory Hypertrophy, or All about My Mother”
Given Over to Want [performance]
Nao BustamanteUntitled
jennifer doyleThis essay is a meditation on writing and reading with José Esteban Muñoz. There was a shift from feeling to sense. From affect to something different. A shared sense, a combine. Not an assemblage: something more fluid or precarious, environmental … Continue reading “Untitled”
On Persistence
lauren berlantReading with Muñoz, Deleuze, Bustamante, Adorno, and Mbembe, “On Persistence” is a meditation on queer, neoliberal, and sentimental temporalities that converge in living with finitude.
Cry [used children’s clothes]
D-L AlvarezParts of a World
alexandra t. vazquezDrawing on the mentoring genealogy José Esteban Muñoz emerges from, Vazquez points to how his pedagogical style and ways are accumulative of his own extension from Paul de Man to Eve Sedgwick. This extension is also a mode of giving … Continue reading “Parts of a World”
Touching Ecstasy: Muñozian Theory and the Extension of the Soul
Shane VogelThis essay explores the concept of the ecstatic and the soul in the work of José Esteban Muñoz and Jean-Luc Nancy. It uses these notions to argue for an ecstatic ontology and elaborates such an ontology through the work of … Continue reading “Touching Ecstasy: Muñozian Theory and the Extension of the Soul”
Notes on the Comedown
Joshua Javier GuzmánToward the end of his short career, José Esteban Muñoz turned to the philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy to theorize what he termed as the sense of brown. In his theoretical move from feeling to sense, Muñoz accounts for the onto-poetics … Continue reading “Notes on the Comedown”
Nicholas [pencil and watercolor]
Justin BondIn Finitude: Being with José, Being with Pedro
Tavia Nyong'oThrough an engagement with José Esteban Muñoz’s writings on queer-of-color counterpublicity, this essay proposes that we participate in his legacy through acts of methexis—or “group sharing”—rather than mimesis. Muñoz and Pedro Zamora are two figures from the Miami-based Cuban exile … Continue reading “In Finitude: Being with José, Being with Pedro”
Just Alike
Jonathan FlatleyThis essay examines Andy Warhol’s Ladies and Gentlemen (1975) series of paintings, prints, collages, and drawings of African American and Latino drag queens. It compares Warhol’s representation of this group of drag queens, most of whom were also prostitutes who frequented the … Continue reading “Just Alike”
Time after Time: St. Jude, Stages, and Muñozian Traces
Christine BalanceIn his chapter “Stages: Queers, Punks, and the Utopian Performative” in Cruising Utopia, José Esteban Muñoz models for us what he terms the “productive consumption” of photographer Kevin McCarty’s work. Inspired by Muñoz’s dialogic approach, recognizing that our own being-with him … Continue reading “Time after Time: St. Jude, Stages, and Muñozian Traces”