"I'm a Mountain Biking Vampire Witch From the Future!": Queer Decolonial Killjoys in Queer Studies and Politics

Abstract

This thesis asks how queer scholarship and politics will maintain a radically queer critical edge, specifically an unsettling, decolonial approach that does not take for granted the continuance of queer liberal and settler colonial structures. A longstanding debate in queer studies and politics is the tension between queer assimilation vs queer radicalism. However, even the radical unsettling approaches that discuss radical queer futurity (Muñoz, and Edelman) often do not centre the important context of settler colonialism, even while critiquing normativity and imagining better futures. So how do we locate examples of imaginings of queer decolonial futures: ones that account for settler colonialism? To find out, I chose to examine selected performances in specific popular "silly archives of unhappy feelings," and found complex examples of uncanny, at times monstrous, performances by artists (Trixie Mattel, Katya Zamoldchikova and Miss Chief Eagle Testickle). These artists, I argue, exemplify and embody the characteristics of what I call "Queer Decolonial Killjoys" (QDKs). Building on Ahmed's concepts of "Feminist Killjoys," and "Unhappy Queers," I demonstrate that the artists I discuss not only unsettle gendered, sexualized, and racialized norms (à la Ahmed), but that they also act as Decolonial Killjoys because they use complex performative strategies to also critique settler colonialism and queer liberalism. Their performances, I suggest, also gesture to important possibilities of queer and decolonial futures. Finally, I argue that the performances of QDKs can remind queer studies scholars to become more comfortable with being uncomfortable/unsettled, and may help us to learn how to begin imagining radical queer decolonial futures. Hoelke, 2 Acknowledgements First, thank you so much to my committee whose support and mentorship made finishing this degree possible. I feel that I have grown so much under the supervision of Dr. Eva Mackey. Her friendship, mentorship, and brilliant insights and ideas were instrumental to me finishing. Dr. Patrizia Gentile's support, and immense knowledge of queer theory also made this possible. I am also incredibly thankful for having the opportunity to work with Dr. Kahente Horn Miller, whose scholarship and community-work has inspired me in so many ways. Heartfelt thanks to the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton, which has been my home for nearly a decade! I am so grateful to have been able to grow in such an academically rigorous and supportive environment. I'm incredibly grateful to my family. My parents Shayne and Jolanta, and my grandparents never wavered in their support and encouragement of me. Dad-thank you in particular for encouraging my pursuit of higher education. Olivia, you don't know how much I appreciated your humour and phone calls! Last, but certainly not least: Jeff-I couldn't have done this without you. Thank you for your love, patience, and support throughout this project (and for putting up with me bringing home so many stray kittens).