Play School, melancholia, and the politics of recognition

This paper draws on Judith Butler's notion of 'gender melancholia' as conceived in The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection, and Emmanuel Levinas' notion of the face of the Other mobilized in Butler's more recent work. In particular, I will focus on gender melancholia in order to consider why non-heteronormative identities might cause such consternation when they appear in a specific pedagogical context. I also consider how the notion of gender melancholia may be useful in gaining a more in-depth understanding of the prohibitions placed on the production and dissemination of texts that introduce young children to non-normative representations of sexual and gender identity. In addition, the Levinasian notion of the face, as mobilized by Butler, prompts a consideration of the ethical implications of having certain faces that appear to be unrepresentable in particular pedagogical domains.