Opacity and the Closet: Queer Tactics in Foucault, Barthes, and Warhol

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OPACITY AND THE CLOSET This page intentionally left blank OPACITY AND THE CLOSET Queer Tactics in Foucault, Barthes, and Warhol NICHOLAS DE VILLIERS University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London An earlier version of chapter 1 was published as “Confessions of a Masked Philosopher: Anonymity and Identification in Foucault and Guibert,” symploke - 16, nos. 1–2 (2009): 75–91. An earlier version of chapter 4 was published as “Unseen Warhol/Seeing Barthes,” Paragraph: A Journal of Modern Critical Theory 28, no. 3 (2005): 21–35. Copyright 2012 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401–2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data de Villiers, Nicholas. Opacity and the closet : queer tactics in Foucault, Barthes, and Warhol / Nicholas de Villiers. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8166-7570-8 (hc : acid-free paper) ISBN 978-0-8166-7571-5 (pb : acid-free paper) 1. Queer theory. 2. Self in literature. 3. Homosexuality in literature. 4. Foucault, Michel, 1926–1984—Criticism and interpretation. 5. Barthes, Roland—Criticism and interpretation. 6. Warhol, Andy—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PN56.H57D43 2012 809´.93353—dc23 2011052483 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The other is not to be known; his opacity is not the screen around a secret, but, instead, a kind of evidence in which the game of reality and appearance is done away with. —Roland Barthes, “The Unknowable,” A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments This page intentionally left blank ...