Queer-phobic and Cultural Aphasia: Theoretical Discussions about Heterosexual Hegemony Suturing in the Textbook

Abstract

The focus in this paper is knowledge (re)production in the textbook industry, and particularly this paper focuses on these questions: what topics (like queer-related topics) shouldn’t we or do we seldom read about in textbooks? What kinds of mechanisms dominate or produce this outcome? Is it possible to develop resistance strategies such as queer-friendly curricula and queering textbooks to work against these entrenched systems of educational production and belief? In line with these questions, this paper coins/uses the concepts of cultural aphasia and hegemonic suture to analyze and respond to these concerns. In conclusion, this paper asserts that cultural aphasia has two different types: the first is an avoidance of speaking and writing, which reflects the chilling effects of reinforced discourses between publishers and authors. The second type of cultural aphasia concerns the distortion of queer issues by negative terms, which are dominated by institutional powers rooted in both censorship and its institutional correlatives: editing, endorsement, and curricular standardizations. In other words, censorship as hegemonic suture is any act intended to keep students from reading, seeing or hearing any materials that some person deems objectionable or morally unsound. Finally, this paper suggests that to develop queering textbooks characterized by heteroglossia may be a possible strategy for going beyond the situation of cultural aphasia.