Speculative Relations

Joseph M. Pierce (Cherokee Nation) is Associate Professor in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University and author of Argentine Intimacies: Queer Kinship in an Age of Splendor, 1890–1910.

“Deftly navigating a staggering array of creative works, critical currents, and cultural contexts, Cherokee Nation scholar Joseph M. Pierce considers questions of relations, kinship, and how Indigenous artists and visionaries can help us realize life-giving worlds in the death-throes of the current imperial order. With personal and poetic imaginings and incisive readings of Indigenous art and scholarship, Speculative Relations is a generative revelation and an urgent, provocative, and generous scholarly contribution. It exemplifies why Pierce is one of the most compelling and dexterous thinkers working at the intersection of Indigenous, queer, and cultural studies today.” - Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation), author of Why Indigenous Literatures Matter

• Preface: A Story of Relation ixIntroduction: Speculation, Relations, Worlding, and Repair 11.Relate 25Interlude 1. Remember 412. Gesture 48Interlude 2. Speculate 853. Become 87Interlude 3. Star 1234. Body 126Interlude 4. Rock 1815. Love 185Conclusion 212Epilogue: If/Then Statements 218Acknowledgments 221Notes 225Bibliography 249Index 263