Queer sensation and non-representational queer reading: a case study of Wu Hao’s All in My Family

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article develops a non-representational queer approach to the analysis of first-person queer documentary. I suggest that a change of the view from investigating queer representations to exploring queer sensation may release the desire and repression that are both hidden and maintained with images of queerness. Queer sensation in this article refers to the existence of a complex relationship between queer and familial kinship, which affectively infiltrates the queer documentary. To chart queer sensation, I propose the notion of non-representational queer reading that foregrounds the approach of charting queer sensation rather than defining it. Non-representational queer reading comprises affect-based non-representational theory and the idea of queer reading. Non-representational queer reading queers the way of analysing queer documentary that follows the idea of mobility and flexibility as the essence of queerness. Utilising Wu Hao’s All in My Family (2019) as an example, I argue that Wu’s documentary sheds light on a complex queer sensation which not only overflows from the film but also pervades within the heterosexual-dominated Chinese society outside the screen.