Queering ‘Spirit’ in the Real and the Reel: Vignettes of Hope, Agency and Empowerment from Malaysia and Indonesia

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

Queer subjects, or subjects whose gender and sexual identities are incongruous with heteronormative expectations, are often alienated from discourses of ‘spirit’. This panel, comprising four presenters who work on diverse issues of queer subjects in Malaysia and Indonesia, seeks to queer the ways in which ‘spirit’ is framed, negotiated, recast and performed in both the real and the reel. We understand ‘spirit’ as practices of religion and spirituality, as well as notions of vitality and vigour that characterise human expressions and performances. Additionally, we deploy ‘queer’ as diverse strategies to subvert, deconstruct and reimagine normative alignments of gender and sexual identities (Schippert, 2005) in relation to ‘spirit’ in the sociology of sexuality in Malaysia, and film studies in Indonesia and Malaysia. Thus, we highlight creative agentic processes in situations of constraint and condemnation. Our panel draws on our acute awareness that queer subjects have already been marked as deviant and/or sinful in society, and thus disassociated from discourses of ‘spirit’. In real life, queer subjects encounter discrimination from religious institutions (Wu, 2000). Reel life provides numerous representations of queer subjects as embodiments of rebellion and sin, and invariably depicts an eventual repentance of such subjects from misguided ways (Lim, 2015). Nevertheless, these dynamics are evolving with increasing displays of resistance and resilience. Oppressions of ‘spirit’ are increasingly counteracted with options that manifest queer hope, agency and empowerment. This panel offers alternative discourses from Malaysian and Indonesian perspectives that demonstrate how ‘spirit’ can operate as a liberative force for queer subjects.

Area of Study

• Southeast Asia

Session Organizer

• Joseph N. Goh, Monash University

Chair

• Joseph N. Goh, Monash University

Individual Presentations

• Sacred Symbiosis: Negotiations of Desire and Spirit among Non-Heteronormative Malaysian Men - Joseph N. Goh, Monash University

• ‘Spirited Closets’ - Sharon A. Bong, Monash University

• Spirit Encounters: Haptic Visuality and Queer Subjectivity in Indonesian Film - Alicia Izharuddin, University of Malaya

• The Spirit of LGBT Movements in Malaysia - Tsukasa Iga, Kyoto University