Revisiting Austerity: Queer Aesthetics and Moral Disciplining.

Merriam Webster named austerity the 2010 Word of the Year, indexing its spectacular entrance into the vernacular during the Great Recession of the 2000s. This discourse often constructed austerity as a European, novel, and economic phenomenon. This essay contends with such myths, by locating its ana...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 101 - 132
Autor principal: Ellawala, Themal
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of Nebraska Press 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=187697140&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 187697140
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        01609009
        FON
      jtl: Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies
      issn: 01609009
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: 2025
      vid: 46
      iid: 2
      pid: 758
      pub: University of Nebraska Press
    artinfo:
      ui:
        187697140
        10.1353/fro.2025.a968879
      ppf: 101
      ppct: 31
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 1.1MB
      tig:
        atl: Revisiting Austerity: Queer Aesthetics and Moral Disciplining.
      aug:
        au: Ellawala, Themal
      su:
        History of colonies
        Great Recession, 2008-2013
        Austerity
        Prudence
        Modesty
        Sri Lanka
      sug:
        subj:
          Sri Lanka
          History of colonies
          Great Recession, 2008-2013
          Austerity
          Prudence
          Modesty
      keyword:
        aesthetics
        austerity
        fashion
        queer
      ab: Merriam Webster named austerity the 2010 Word of the Year, indexing its spectacular entrance into the vernacular during the Great Recession of the 2000s. This discourse often constructed austerity as a European, novel, and economic phenomenon. This essay contends with such myths, by locating its analysis in the colonial and post/colonial history of crisis-riddled Sri Lanka and examining the cultural, quotidian life of austerity. I argue that austerity can be understood as both an economic rationality and aesthetic sensibility that seeks to curtail the excessive, ostentatious, and ornamental. Furthermore, I suggest that both forms of austerity are undergirded by a common moral discourse of prudence, modesty, sacrifice, and restraint. Using queer sartorial aesthetics as analytical object, I read across ethnographic vignettes, media and public discourse, and scholarship to suggest that the queerly clothed body offers unique insights on the scale and ubiquity of austerity as a moral-economic-aesthetic disciplinary formation.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies is the property of University of Nebraska Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies
      holder: University of Nebraska Press
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2025
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N