Shame

A radical reframing of shame, based on 19th-century feminism from the standpoint of queer political theoryShame proposes a new form of political action that shows how 19th century activists denaturalise conventional beliefs about sexuality and gender, and challenge strong asymmetries of power. For Victorians, shame did not merely generate negative feelings and low self-esteem but also had a great capacity to provoke political activism, leading to strategies for transforming political norms that exclude political outlaws. Explores the theoretical and historical dynamics of shame within feminist theory and activism . Emphasies the creative and positive impact of shame. Fills a glaring absence in political theory by undertaking a genealogy of political interventions that predate the 20th century.

Bogdan Popa is Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics at Oberlin College. He has been published in the Annual Review of Critical Psychology and contributed chapters to books including Cosmopolitanism and the Legacies of Dissent (edited by Tamara Caraus and Camil Alexandru Parvu, Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought, 2014).