THEORY AND THE EVERYDAY

Abstract

The Argonauts combines high theory and the everyday. It does this by combining lofty thought, the quotidian, close attention to words and ideas and stray thoughts, and desire. It does this through form, the way it blends and refuses genre, the way it skips from one thought or story to another, and making them connect by virtue of contiguity. The Argonauts refuses form in a way that parallels how Maggie's and Harry's bodies and identities refuse gender taxonomy. It also refuses genre, referred to variously as theory, memoir, and autotheory. While it queers form and family, it also queers feelings.

Keywords:

• The Argonauts
• Maggie Nelson
• queer family
• lesbian memoir
• Roland Barthes
• A Lover’s Discourse
• Eve Sedgwick
• Audre Lorde
• Gertrude Stein

disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.