Queer theory has often been hesitant to align itself with a politics of the state, approaching it with a negative or pragmatic framework.\xa0A Queer Theory of the State\xa0(Floating Opera Press, 2023) expands an\xa0earlier online essay\xa0from\xa0The Point\xa0by historian Samuel Huneke to offer a more optimistic perspective. Rather than eschew political engagement with democratic theorizing, Huneke asks how queer theory can wed its critically anti-normative impulses to the empirical need for a state. In answering this question, Huneke shows how the state is an integral component of a politics that seeks to subvert and undo the oppression of queer lives.\nLea Greenberg\xa0is an editor, translator, and scholar of German and Jewish studies.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies