Intoxicated: Race, Disability, and Chemical Intimacy across Empire

In Intoxicated, Mel Y. Chen examines the imperial relationship between race, sexuality, and disability, focusing on nineteenth-century biopolitical archives in England and Australia. They show how race and disability are mutually entangled through toxicity, leading to "intoxicated" subjects often shadowed by slowness. Chen charts the ongoing reverberations of these chemical entanglements in art and contemporary moments of political and economic conflict. They affirmatively identify queer/crip forms of unlearning and worldmaking under imperialism, challenging conventional understandings of slowness and agitation.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 09 November 2023
Publisher: Duke University Press

In her groundbreaking book, "Intoxicated: Mel Y. Chen explores the enduring imperial relationship between race, sexuality, and disability. Through a meticulous examination of nineteenth-century biopolitical archives in England and Australia, Chen uncovers how mutual entanglements of race and disability emerge through the toxic effects. By delving into the characterization of white intellectual disability as "Asian interiority" by English scientist John Langdon Downs and the racialization and targeting of Aboriginal peoples in Queensland through its purported concern with black opium, Chen sheds light on how the colonial administration of race and disability creates "intoxicated" subjects, often overshadowed by slowness.

Chen meticulously charts the ongoing reverberations of these chemical entanglements in art and contemporary moments of political and economic conflict or agitation. Despite the potential impacts of ongoing pollution or discrediting intoxicated subjects as agents of failure, Chen affirms the existence of queer/crip forms of unlearning and worldmaking under imperialism. She challenges conventional understandings of slowness and agitation, intellectual method, and the toxic ordinary through an undisciplined thinking that resists linear or accretive methods of inquiry.

"Intoxicated" is a thought-provoking and essential read for anyone interested in understanding the complex intersections of race, sexuality, and disability in the historical and contemporary context. Chen's scholarship provides a valuable contribution to the field of imperial studies and offers a fresh perspective on the ongoing legacies of colonialism and its toxic effects.

Weight: 445g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478025320