Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, RIP.

April 15, 2009 11:19 AM

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, one of the founders of queer theory, died on April 12th, 2009. Sedgwick was known not only for her groundbreaking academic publications, but also for her candid humanism. And surprisingly to some, she was married for 40 years to Hal Sedgwick, but they only saw each other on weekends.
posted by hpliferaft (37 comments total)

wow. that sounds like the ideal marriage.
posted by msconduct at 11:30 AM on April 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

A memorial.
posted by shothotbot at 11:32 AM on April 15, 2009 [2 favorites]

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posted by OmieWise at 11:39 AM on April 15, 2009

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posted by DaDaDaDave at 11:41 AM on April 15, 2009

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posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:44 AM on April 15, 2009

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posted by cerebus19 at 11:51 AM on April 15, 2009

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this is a moment of silence outside of a closet
posted by RogerB at 11:53 AM on April 15, 2009 [8 favorites]

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posted by Pope Guilty at 11:53 AM on April 15, 2009

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posted by malpractice at 11:55 AM on April 15, 2009

She was a charming and bubbly speaker, which came as a surprise to me because of the spare precision of her writing. 59 years of her was not enough. Sad.
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:01 PM on April 15, 2009

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(and many thanks for all the ways in which she broke my brain, and helped put it back together.)
posted by rtha at 12:03 PM on April 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

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posted by gingerbeer at 12:06 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by maxwelton at 12:08 PM on April 15, 2009

Thanks for this. Candid humanism link just goes to http://www.salon.com/ for me though.
posted by paduasoy at 12:09 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by radiocontrolled at 12:11 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by sociology at 12:13 PM on April 15, 2009

I wanted to try and put a post together but didn't have the time to do it justice. Thanks, hpliferaft.

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posted by jokeefe at 12:30 PM on April 15, 2009

She taught me how to think about and for myself. It turns out I didn't end up agreeing with her about a lot of things in the end, but she presented her new-to-me ideas in such a way that I learned tons along the way.

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posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:40 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by munchingzombie at 12:41 PM on April 15, 2009

That salon.com link: http://www.salon.com/books/it/1999/09/27/sedgwick/print.html
posted by hpliferaft at 1:04 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by cereselle at 1:09 PM on April 15, 2009

http://www.salon.com/books/it/1999/09/27/sedgwick/index.html works for me, but not the one you give above.

Thanks for your link to, shothotbot.
posted by paduasoy at 1:43 PM on April 15, 2009

how very appropriate, that a queer theorist would also come up with such a wonderful model for marriage!
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:07 PM on April 15, 2009

Judith Butler on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, 1950-2009.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:09 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by Craig at 2:34 PM on April 15, 2009

sigh. This was coming down the pipe for a long time, alas, but I take some consolation in the fact that she seemed to have made peace with her own future death and even folded it into her own academic work. While I didn't take to all of her arguments with equal enthusiasm, I was always impressed with the gentle and compassionate tone she could manage, even when dealing with complex and politically-charged topics. Her prose always felt soft, supple and yet crystalline.

Thank you EKS, for: reparative reading, touching feeling, white glasses, pedagogy of buddhism, teaching depression, affect/shame.

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posted by LMGM at 2:39 PM on April 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wow, that's a real shame. I only encountered her through The Coherence of Gothic Conventions, but that work was essential (foundational?) in my Masters thesis.
posted by Paragon at 2:46 PM on April 15, 2009

Thanks for this post.

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posted by lunit at 4:02 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by youarenothere at 4:41 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:00 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by mrmojoflying at 5:23 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by jonp72 at 6:47 PM on April 15, 2009

What a fine obituary thread.

Encountering Sedgwick for the first time was a revelation. She's one of those critical theorists which gave me the tools to understand the world.

I have long had plans to get a tortoise and name it Sedgwick. I think her scholarship was tortoise-like, slow, methodical, precise and came in ahead at the finish.
posted by Kattullus at 7:06 PM on April 15, 2009

sigh. to reiterate:


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posted by Mngo at 7:07 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by rottytooth at 7:37 PM on April 15, 2009

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posted by nobody at 9:33 AM on April 16, 2009

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posted by mwark at 1:24 PM on April 17, 2009