New Right Discourse on Race and Sexuality
Britain, 1968–1990

A 1994 study of racism and homophobia in late twentieth-century British politics.

Anna Marie Smith (Author)

9780521459211, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 November 1994

300 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.7 cm, 0.38 kg

"It is a project which addresses one of the most compelling issues of our time--an issue central to the survival and future well-being of gay and lesbian people (not to mention a great many other groups)." Toronto Centre for Lesbian and Gay Studies

The first book in the Cultural Margins series is a 1994 study of racism and homophobia in British politics, which demonstrates the demonisation of blacks, lesbians, and gays in New Right discourse. Anna Marie Smith develops theoretical insights from literary and cultural critics, including Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida, Hall, and Gilroy, to produce detailed readings of two key moments in New Right discourse: the speeches of Enoch Powell on black immigration (1968–72) and the legislative campaign of the late 1980s to prohibit the promotion of homosexuality. Her analysis challenges the silence on racism and homophobia in previous studies of Thatcherism and the New Right, and shows how demonisation of lesbians and gays depends on previous demonisations of black immigrant and criminal figures. Overall, this book offers a devastating critique of racism and homophobia in late twentieth-century Britain.

Introduction
1. Thatcherism, the new racism, and the British New Right: hegemonic imaginary or accidental mirage?
2. Derrida's 'infrastructure' of supplementarity
3. Separating difference from what it can do: nihilism and bio-power relations
4. Powellism: the black immigrant as the post-colonial symptom and the phantasmatic re-closure of the British nation
5. Thatcherism's promotion of homosexuality
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Literary theory [DSA]