EASTERN EUROPEAN LGBT HISTORY AND POLITICS

Duan Maljkovi

Queering Marx and Marxing the Queer:

Normality of the Belgrade Gay Pride
This lecture will consist of two parts: first I will try to explicate the term queer in opposition to
hetero/homonormativity and offer a brief introduction to queer theory and its critique of identity
politics and the present mainstream gay movement. An attempt will be made to (re)connect queer
theory with Marxism and make it a tool for a wider, class struggle, "intersecting" gay oppression
and workers' oppression, going back to the revolutionary 70's of the XX century when homosexual
struggle was considered a part of universal human emancipation. Secondly, I will use the
aforementioned theoretical tools to deconstruct the Belgrade Gay Pride as a completely non-queer
manifestation, formally indifferent to class problematic while being deeply integrated into
neoliberal politics, homonationalism and pinkwashing.

Duan Maljkovi is a Belgrade-based journalist, publicist, translator and long-term LGBT activist.

He studied Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, and worked for a
variety of both radio and print media outlets. He edited the homoerotic series Kontrabunt at the
Belgrade publishing house Rende and was the editor of the site gay-serbia.com. Since 2010 he has
been the editor of the journal for queer theory and culture QT and the coordinator of the Belgrade
Centre for Queer Studies. In 2002 he received the Heimdahl Award for his radio programme
Gayming aired on Radio Beograd 202. He is also recipient of the Grizzly Bear Award given by the
Lesbian and Gay Cultural Network for the organisation of the first Pride Parade in Belgrade in
2001.

Thursday, 5 November 2015, 15:00-17:00

REC C [Nieuwe Achtergracht 166], Room 3.01

The lecture is organised in the framework of Dr Bojan Bilis research project:

[Post-]Yugoslav LGBT Activism: Between Nationalism and Europeanisation

The lecture is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.
For more information visit: www.arcgs.uva.nl