ABSTRACT
Time binds us. We are, desire, become, remember, and project ourselves in and through time. Time is not a line waiting for us to occupy or reign over it. Oftentimes, but even more so when left unscrutinized, it is a limiting actant, aligned with power to force individuals into very precise forms of being, guiding them to predetermined daily rhythms and forms of understanding themselves and others in time. Time is an ever-present and inevitable component of any representation of what is, was, and will be thought to be possible. Yet, just like time binds us, it can be unbound and untangled in return, bringing forth free critical thinking and facilitating other processes of becoming ungoverned by the strictures of normativity. As such, this volume recognizes the power of time to determine us, but it also chooses to queer time and make it an ally of untangled forms of understanding identities. In doing so, this volume acknowledges that, as Michel Foucault (1978) explained, history is made to look smooth and unequivocal, but it is also composed of abrupt interruptions and enforced silences in time that, following Elizabeth Freeman's example (2005), can and must be unearthed. This volume is also aware that the way time is represented, or the way representations vary in time, can be used to interpellate individuals into narrow, chrononormative forms of being (Freeman 2010), but it also seeks examples of identities projected through and in time that queer expectations to create freer forms of desiring that problematize linearity. The volume is aware that there are temporal rhythms that normatively lure, gentrify, and reterritorialize identities and bodies but also believes that this propulsion can be subverted (Jack Halberstam 2005) and transformed into a queer song of radical change that, as Esteban Muñoz (2009) claimed, calls people into action and invites them to desire other presents and futures. The common thesis of this volume is that time binds us but, more importantly, that time can also be scrutinized in search of examples where identities are untangled and time itself becomes a queer ally.
