An Interview with Lee Edelman

Abstract:Lee Edelman is the Fletcher Professor of English Literature at Tufts University and a key figure in queer theory. This interview was conducted in December 2022, a month before Edelman's fourth book, Bad Education, was published by Duke University Press. In this discussion, Edelman revisits the "antisocial" debate in queer theory and assesses his understanding of negativity and antisociality in relation to the positions of Leo Bersani and José Esteban Muñoz, among others. Edelman also outlines how his thought in No Future and Bad Education interacts with contemporary politics and strands of Afropessimism, feminism, and family abolition.