Image Credit: Photo by Nick Reynolds on Unsplash. And yet, the general reception of Cruising Utopia has focused on the book’s emphasis on hope and futurity. Rejecting the academic nihilism and political pragmatism of the time, Muñoz insisted that the queer cultural and political imagination move beyond the stagnant present in order to imagine a brighter future. In Cruising Utopia Muñoz continues to pursue some of the themes of world-making and the reanimation of the political imagination. Book Review: Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (10th Anniversary Edition) by José Esteban Muñoz. Cruising Utopia can ultimately be read as an invitation, a performative provocation. In each … Continue reading “Response”, “"Good as Yesterday"'s Queer Futurity: Muñoz with Muñoze”, "Good as Yesterday"'s Queer Futurity: Muñoz with Muñoze. A Blochian approach to aesthetic theory is invested in describing the an- These new essays alone justify getting hold of this tenth anniversary edition of Cruising Utopia, alongside the new foreword, which offers an excellent introduction to the ideas (and outsized reputation) of the original text. Series. He is not interested in ‘mere inclusion in a corrupt and bankrupt social order’, insisting that ‘we must dream and enact new and better pleasures, other ways of being in the world, and ultimately new worlds’ (1). He writes about queer theory, gender rules and utopic future, first of all as a teacher. 57, No. Performance art legend Vaginal Davis provides the cover image with an original illustration inspired by Cruising Utopia. To commemorate José Esteban Muñoz’s brilliant work following his untimely death on December 3, 2013, and to remind readers of the vibrant discussions he helped catalyze, we’ve reposted this special dossier on Cruising Utopia—alongside remembrances of Muñoz by two colleagues and fellow Social Text collective members, Jack Halberstam and Ann Pellegrini. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. Muñoz allows his movement through the archive to be directed by something more relational and associative than mere chronology. As a work of theory, Cruising Utopia is dense, and its array of artistic and theoretical sources could be off-putting for the unfamiliar reader. Instead of the opting for the death drive and giving up any faith in queer reform, as Lee Edelman suggested in his 2004 book No Future , Muñoz promotes an idea he calls ”hope’s methodology”. Series: Sexual cultures. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity by José Esteban Muñoz. Upon … Continue reading “The Utopian in the Everyday”, For those of you who are concerned about the so-called “Gay Agenda,” have no fear. Subjects. In Cruising Utopia, Muñoz explores the queer utopian potential offered by this failure. Sexual cultures. Summary: "The LGBT agenda for too long has been dominated by pragmatic issues like same-sex marriage and gays in the military. Drawing on the work of Ernst Bloch, José Esteban Muñoz recalls the queer past for guidance in presaging its future. Manifesto-like and ardent, it is a call to think about our lives and times differently, to look beyond a narrow version of the here and now on which so many around us who are bent on the normative count. José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia. Cruising Utopia seeks to break the present stagnancy by cruising ahead. In No Future, Edelman argues that if queer people have been positioned in opposition to the ‘reproductive futurity’ of heterosexuality, they should abandon the future altogether in favour of a more nihilistic, radical engagement with the present. José Esteban Muñoz. tags: futurity, lgbtq, queerness, utopia. 15 April 2017 — Leave a comment “A map of the world that does not include utopia is not worth glancing at.” (Oscar Wilde) “ …] we must dream and enact new and better pleasures, other ways of being in the world, and ultimately new worlds” (p.1) “[…] queer aesthetics map future social relations. Cruising Utopia seeks to break the present stagnancy by cruising ahead. The author argues that the here and now are not enough and issues an urgent call for the revivification of the queer political imagination.