The Terrible We – Cameron Awkward-Rich

n The Terrible We Cameron Awkward-Rich thinks with the bad feelings and mad habits of thought that persist in both transphobic discourse and trans cultural production. Observing that trans studies was founded on a split from and disavowal of madness, illness, and disability, Awkward-Rich argues for and models a trans criticism that works against this disavowal. By tracing the coproduction of the categories of disabled and transgender in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century and analyzing transmasculine literature and theory by Eli Clare, Elliott DeLine, Dylan Scholinski, and others, Awkward-Rich suggests that thinking with maladjustment might provide new perspectives on the impasses arising from the conflicted relationships among trans, feminist, and queer. In so doing, he demonstrates that rather than only impeding or confining trans life, thought, and creativity, forms of maladjustment have also been and will continue to be central to their development.

-Publisher description

What others are saying:

“In many ways, [The Terrible We] is about trans studies as a field, to advocate ‘for a version of trans studies that can acknowledge and think with a more expansive we’, but it also holds up a mirror to dynamics within trans activism and communities. … With the pressure to provide trans representation that depicts trans joy, showing to cisgender audiences that we are ‘not sick’, this book provides a counter, encouraging us to sit with ‘maladjusted’ trans people instead of attempting to leave us behind.” — Rayan Shipton, Journal of Gender Studies

“The Terrible We serves as an important guide for those interested in new ways of viewing trans life in both its positive and negative aspects and those wanting to use everyday archives in a method that is more interested in fractures and gaps rather than acceptance and completion.” — Jacob Debrock, TSQ

“This imperative, timely, and necessary contribution to trans studies, disability studies, and mad studies does the kind of meta-level thinking about the ongoing genealogies of contestation and consolidation that grant trans studies institutional and political legitimacy. Cameron Awkward-Rich refuses to simply recite debates about the relationships among transness, trans studies and feminism, and trans studies and queer theory; he thinks through the unspoken and elided disavowals at work within them. Awkward-Rich is the kind of critical genealogist we need in the longue durée of the supposed trans tipping point.” — Hil Malatino, author of Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad

“Cameron Awkward-Rich intervenes in this critical moment in trans studies through a discerning, generous, and imaginative rereading of the debates, texts, and archives that have provided trans studies with its initial anchors. Reflecting on and resituating the early archive and critical practices of trans studies through a capacious and nuanced understanding of the field’s formative gestures, The Terrible We is a pathbreaking work.” — Jian Neo Chen, author of Trans Exploits: Trans of Color Cultures and Technologies in Movement